J 


, 


PMUKKi  Recording  k   Act  of  O-npres*,  in    the   year   185*,  bv 

KIG3INS    &    KELLOGG, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  Statet,  for  tbt   Souther 
Pintriot  of   .Yew  York 


W.  H   TI.ISOV,  Stereotype*  K.  O.  J«> 


TO 
3D  E  .A.  &      ML 

THIS    LITTLE    BOOK 

IS    LOVINGLY    OFFERED. 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 

Bequest  of 
Norman  Neuerburg 


PKEF  A  CE. 


FOE  the  benefit  of  my  young  friends  in  America,  who 
have  not  read  about  Vesuvius  and  the  cities  which  once 
lay  at  its  foot,  I  have  written  this  little  story  of  Mary 
and  her  Mother.  While  I  write,  the  great  volcano  is 
before  me,  sending  up  a  column  of  white  smoke,  which 
turns  to  a  soft  purple  when  the  sun  is  going  down.  I 
trust  my  young  readers  will  find  as  much  pleasure  in 
perusing  this  book,  as  I  have  found  in  writing  it  for 
them. 

NAPLES,  March  8,  1856. 


CO!N  TENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PA  OK 

Mary's  Arrival  at  Naples,  and  her  Walk  along  the  Bay,  ...       9 


CHAPTER   II. 
Conversation  with  her  Mot'ier  about  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum,  .      28 

CHAPTER  III. 
Another  Conversation, 88 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Drive  to  Pompeii, 53 

CHAPTER  V. 
Mary  and  her  Mother  walk  through  Pompeii, 66 


CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Ride  to  the  foot  of  the  Cone  of  Vesuvius, .        .        ,        .        .92 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Ascent  of  the  Cone,  105 

vii 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  VIII. 

MM 

Visit  to  the  Bourbon  Museum, :       .    121 

CHAPTER  IX. 
The  Museum  continued, 186 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Museum  still  continued, •        •  153 

CHAPTER  XI. 
Visit  to  Herculaneum,  Drive  to  Sorrento,  and  Sail  to  Capri,    .        .    168 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Visit  to  the  Grotta  Azzurra,  or  Blue  Grotto,  and  Conclusion,         .    188 


MARY    BROWN 


NAPLES,   POMPEII    AND    HERCULANEUM. 


CHAPTER    I. 

IT  was  on  a  bright  day  in  February,  1856,  that 
Mary  Brown  and  her  mother  arrived  at  the  gay  city 
of  Naples,  and  took  rooms  in  the  Albergo  di  Gene- 
vra.  This  hotel  amused  Mary  very  much,  because 
the  outside  was  painted  a  pale  pink  ;  but  she  soon 
saw  that  it  was  the  fashion  in  Naples  to  paint  the 
houses  pink  and  yellow,  as  well  as  white.  After  a 
few  days  she  would  hardly  have  thought  of  noticing 
it,  had  it  not  been  that  her  attention  was  again 
called  to  it  by  some  things  about  which  I  shall  tell 
you. 

Naples,  as  all  my  young  friends  know,  is  in  Italy. 
They  know,  also,  that  Italy  is  shaped  something  like 


10  MARY   BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

a  boot,  and  that  Naples  lies  on  the  front  of  the 
boot,  just  above  the  ankle.  They  have,  perhaps, 
heard  that  this  noted  city  is  situated  on  the  shore  of 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  bays  in  the  world.  Hills 
rise  all  around  the  Bay,  and  between  them  and  the 
shore  are  several  towns,  made  up  of  white  houses. 
Off  at  one  side  is  Mount  Vesuvius,  which  every 
body  knows,  is  a  famous  volcano. 

Mary  Brown  had  often  heard  her  mother  talk  of 
the  Bay  of  Naples,  and  of  her  great  desire  to  see  it. 
She  was  not  much  surprised,  therefore,  when  her 
mother  said,  "  Mary,  my  dear,  put  on  your  bonnet 
and  we  will  take  a  walk  and  see  the  Bay  before 
dinner. 

Mary  was  ready  in  a  minute.  They  went  down 
the  great  stairway  of  the  hotel,  and  out  into  the 
street.  They  stopped  to  admire  a  fountain.  It 
was  of  bronze,  and  represented  a  man  standing  on 
a  large,  flat  basin,  which  was  supported  by  several 
bronze  figures  of  women.  The  man  held  in  his  hand 
a  trident,  from  the  prongs  of  which  the  water  spouted 
up  above  his  head,  and  then  fell  into  a  great  basin 
far  below.  Mrs.  Brown  told  her  daughter  that  the 
bronze  man  was  Neptune,  the  god  of  the  sea,  who 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   NAPLES.  11 

always  carried  a  trident  for  a  sceptre.  Mary  well 
remembered  that  she  had  seen  a  picture  of  Neptune 
in  a  little  book  she  had  left  in'  America,  which  told 
about  the  ancient  gods  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

"  The  figures  that  hold  up  the  basin  are  Nereids, 
Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  What  are  Nereids,  mamma  ?" 

"  Nereids  were  beautiful,  fabulous  maidens  who 
lived  in  the  Mediterranean.  They  dwelt  at  the  bot 
tom  of  the  sea,  and  were  kind  to  sailors." 

"And  what  are  those  little  men  in  the  basin 
below?  They  are  riding  on  some  queer-looking 
animals,"  said  Mary. 

"  They  are  probably  Tritons,"  replied  her  mother. 

"  But,  mamma,  I  do  not  know  what  Tritons  are." 

"  They,  too,  were  inhabitants  of  the  sea,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown.  "  They  accompanied  Neptune,  the 
great  sea-god.  They  used  shells  for  trumpets,  and 
when  they  blew  on  those  shells  the  sea  became 
quiet." 

Mary  stood  for  some  minutes,  looking  at  this 
pretty  fountain.  At  last  she  said  :  "  If  those  men 
were  really  alive,  mamma,  I  am  sure  they  would 
not  like  to  stand  so  long  in  such  a  shower." 


12  MAKY   BKOWN   AT   NAPLES. 

"Oh,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "ywi  must 
make  befleve,  as  children  say,  that  they  really  are 
sea-gods,  and  then,  you  know,  nothing  could  please 
them  so  much  as  to  be  in  the  water." 

Mary  laughed,  and  they  passed  on.  In  a  few 
minutes  they  came  to  an  iron  railing,  in  front  of 
a  beautiful  garden.  Before  the  gate  a  soldier  was 
slowly  walking  up  and  down  ;  and  on  the  great 
stone  piers,  on  each  side  of  the  gate,  was  a  horse, 
with  a  slave  holding  him.  The  horses  and  the  slaves 
were  of  bronze.  In  the  garden  were  palm  trees 
and  pine  trees.  The  Italian  pine  is  not  like  ours. 
The  trunk  is  very  tall,  and  the  branches  spread  out 
at  the  top,  like  a  great  umbrella.  Behind  the  trees 
of  the  garden  Mary  saw  a  long  pink  house,  with 
many  windows.  Her  mother  told  her  it  was  the 
palace  of  Ferdinand  II.,  King  of  Naples.  Mary 
wished  that  she  could  see  the  king,  for  she  had  never 
seen  a  king  or  a  queen,  although  she  had  read  about 
them  in  her  story  books,  and  had  studied  about 
them  at  school.  So  she  was  delighted  when  her 
mother  said  that,  perhaps,  some  day  she  would  see 
hun  ride  past  in  his  coach. 

The  street  they  went  through  had  a  great  many 


MARY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES.  13 

jewellers'  shops  on  one  side  of  it,  and  Mary  stopped 
to  look  in  at  the  windows.  She  saw  there  many 
beautiful  breast-pins,  made  of  coral,  cut  into  bunches 
of  flowers.  She  saw,  also,  a  great  many  strings 
of  red  coral  beads,  such  as  she  wore  on  her  neck. 
She  saw,  besides,  some  breast-pins  of  grey,  blue, 
white,  and  red  lava. 

"  There,  mamma,"  she  exclaimed,  "  are  the  lava 
pins  you  told  me  I  should  see  at  Naples,  are  they 
not  ?  How  many  there  are  !  Are  they  really  made 
out  of  the  lava  that  comes  from  Mount  Vesuvius  ? 
And  when  shall  we  see  Mount  Vesuvius,  mamma  ?" 

Mrs.  Brown  smiled  at  her  daughter's  questions, 
for  she  saw  that  the  cnild  was  eager  to  see  the 
famous  volcano,  about  which  she  had  heard  her 
father  talk  in  the  long  winter  evenings  at  home. 

"  Perhaps  we  shall  see  Vesuvius  to-day,  my  child," 
she  said,  "  and  we  must  not  stop  here  to  look  at 
these  pretty  things,  or  we  shall  lose  the  sunset  on 
the  Bay." 

Mary  and  her  mother  entered  a  beautiful  narrow 

park,  which  lay  along  the  beach.     Its  walks  were 

bordered  with  fine  trees  and  bushes.     The  laurusti- 

nus  was  just  putting  out  its  fragrant  white  flowers, 

2 


14:  MARY   BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

roses  were  as  reel  and  sweet  as  in  summer  at  home, 
and  the  light  foliage  of  the  pepper  tree  was  gently 
moving  in  the  almost  quiet  air. 

Crossing  the  park,  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  reached 
the  shore  of  the  Bay,  and  stood  for  a  while  silent, 
delighted  with  the  beautiful  view. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  said  Mary,  at  last,  "  is  it  not 
beautiful !  The  Bay  is  shaped  like  a  horse-shoe,  and 
what  a  lovely  pale  blue  that  distant  mountain  is, 
which  lies  in  front  of  us.  It  shuts  up  the  Bay,  does 
it  not  ?" 

"  From  here,  it  does  appear  partially  to  shut  up 
the  Bay,  my  love,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown.  "  It  is  an 
island,  the  island  of  Capri ;  and  there  is  something 
there  you  would  greatly  like  to  see." 

"  What  is  it,  mamma  ?" 

"It  is  a  cave,  which  people  call  the  Grotta 
Azzurra,  or  the  Blue  Grotto,  because  its  walls  and 
roof  are  of  a  beautiful  blue.  The  cave  overhangs 
the  sea,  so  that  it  has  no  pavement  but  the  water." 

"  Can  you  go  into  it,  mamma  ?" 

"  Yes,  in  a  boat ;  but  the  entrance  is  close  down 
at  the  water's  edge,  and  you  have  to  lie  down  in  the 
boat,  to  pass  under  the  rocks  v 


MAEY   BEOWN    AT    NAPLES.  15 

"And  can  you  not  stand  up,  at  all  ?"  asked  Mary, 
eagerly. 

"When  you  have  once  passed  through  the  en 
trance,  you  can/'  replied  her  mother ;  "  the  walls 
are  quite  high  within." 

"And  can  we  go  there  ?" 

"  I  hope  so,  if  we  have  good  weather.  When  the 
sea  is  rough,  the  grotto  cannot  be  entered.  The 
waves  dash  up  too  high  over  the  hole  through  which 
you  go  in." 

"  I  think  I  should  be  afraid,"  said  Mary. 

"There  is  no  danger  in  a  quiet  sea,  my  dear," 
replied  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  But  what  makes  the  grotto  blue  ?"  asked 
Mary. 

"  The  water  is  shallow  in  the  cave,  and  very  clear. 
The  bottom  is  covered  with  white  sand.  People 
think  the  blue  color  of  the  Bay  is  reflected  through 
the  narrow  doorway,  up  on  the  roof.  Do  you 
understand,  my  dear  ?" 

"I  think  I  do,"  replied  Mary;  "but  are  not  the 
rocks  blue  ?" 

"No,  my  child,  they  are  brown,  like  other  rocks." 

"  Oh,  how  much  I  should  like  to  go  !"  exclaimed 


16  MART   BROWN   AT  NAPLES. 

Mary,  "  how  much  I  should  like  to  go  and  see  this 
cave.  I  wish  we  could  go  to-morrow." 

"  There  are  many  other  things  to  see,  my  child, 
which  will,  perhaps,  interest  you  as  much  as  the 
Blue  Grotto,"  said  Mrs.  Brown.  "  But  how  do  you 
like  the  Bay  ?" 

"  Oh,  so  much,  mamma  !  What  is  that  castle 
that  stands  so  like  a  picture  in  the  water  ?" 

"  It  is  the  Castello  dell'  Ovo,  or  Castle  of  the  Egg, 
and  has  stood  there  seven  hundred  years.  It  is 
built  on  a  great  rock  ;  and  around  on  the  other  side 
of  the  point,  off  to  our  right,  is  the  little  town  of 
Pozzuoli.  It  was  formerly  called  Puteoli,  and  is  the 
place  where  Paul  landed,  on  his  way  to  Rome. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  Bay,  on  our  left,  is  Sor 
rento,  another  town,  and  a  beautiful  place  in  sum 
mer." 

"And  what,  mamma,"  asked  Mary,  "are  those 
two  mountains,  or  great  hills,  on  our  left  ?  They 
look  like  two  peaks  of  one  mountain,  only  the 
mountain  is  not  very  large." 

"  The  one  towards  Sorrento,  my  child,"  said  Mrs, 
Brown,  "has  a  little  cloud  over  it,  as  you  see. 
What  do  you  think  it  is  ?" 


MAKY  BEOWN   AT  NAPLES.  17 

"Why,  mamma,  I  do  not  know.  It  is  not,  it 
cannot  be — Mount  Vesuvius  !"  And  Mary's  face 
began  to  light  up. 

"And  why  not  ?"  asked  her  mother. 

"  It  is  not  big  enough.  Is  it,  mamma,  is  it  Vesu 
vius  ?" 

"Yes,  my  child,  it  is  Vesuvius," 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  sorry  !" 

"Why,  Mary?" 

"  I  thought  Vesuvius  was  the  largest  mountain  in 
the  world,  and  I  have  seen  a  great  many  larger.  Is 
it  really  Vesuvius  ?" 

"  It  is  really  Vesuvius,  my  child  ;  it  is  almost  at 
rest  now.  When  there  is  an  eruption,  it  is  terrific 
enough,  although  it  is  not  so  huge  a  mountain  as 
you  thought.  Look  at  the  mountain,  Mary,  and 
imagine  streams  of  red  hot  lava  rolling  like  rivers 
down  its  side.  Then  imagine,  besides,  a  great 
cloud  hanging  over  the  top  of  the  mountain,  its 
under  surface  all  red  with  the  glow  from  the  hot 
lava  beneath.  Then,  think  of  showers  of  stones 
flying  up  out  of  the  volcano,  and  loud  reports,  like 
great  cannons.  Think,  too,  of  the  earth  trembling 
every  now  and  then,  as  if  some  great  power  shook 
2* 


18  MARY   BKOWK   AT  NAPLES. 

it.  Do  you  not  think  Vesuvius  would  seem  grand 
then  ?" 

"  Yes,  indeed,  mamma.  I  am  quite  afraid  of  the 
mountain.  But  I  am  so  surprised — I  should  not 
have  thought  it  was  a  volcano,  at  all.  I  thought 
that  smoke  was  just  a  little  cloud  stopping  on  the 
top,  a  moment ;  I  did  not  think  it  belonged  there. 
Why,  it  looks  like  a  little  smoke  from  a  chimney." 

"  When  we  ascend  Vesuvius,  my  love — as  I  hope 
we  shall  do — you  will,  perhaps,  find  enough  to 
surprise  you." 

"  Shall  we  really  go  up  the  mountain,  mamma  ? 
Oh,  I  am  so  glad  !"  And  Mary  clapped  her  hands, 
and  danced  along  the  beach. 

"  Come,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  we  will  walk  along 
and  look  at  this  wonderful  mountain  while  the  sun  is 
setting.  See,  the  west  is  beginning  to  grow  bril 
liant,  and  the  rays  are  shooting  across  the  Bay  to 
Vesuvius." 

"And  see,  mamma,  how  white  the  string  of  houses 
looks,  that  lies  along  the  water  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain.  They  look  like  toy  houses,  do  they  not  ? 
and  yet,  I  suppose,  they  are  large  enough  for  people 
to  live  in." 


MA.RY   BROWN   AT  NAPLES.  19 

"  Some  of  them  are  very  large,  my  dear.  That 
line  of  houses  extends  almost  from  Naples  to  Sor 
rento.  It  forms  several  small  towns,  one  of  which  I 
will  point  out  to  you.  Just  beyond  Naples,  lies 
Portici.  Do  you  see  where  I  point  ?" 

"Yes,  mamma." 

"  Next  beyond  it,  lies  Resina,  another  little  town, 
and  the  most  interesting  of  all,  because  it  is  built 
right  over  a  buried  city." 

"Is  that  the  city  you  told  me  about,  when  we 
were  on  our  way  to  Naples  ?" 

"No,  Mary,  that  was  Pompeii.*  The  city  under 
Resina  is  Herculaneum." 

"And  was  it  buried  at  the  same  time  that  Pom 
peii  was  ?" 

"  Yes,  my  dear,,  by  the  same  eruption." 

"  I  do  not  quite  understand  about  it,  mamma  ; 
will  you  not  tell  me  again  ?" 

"Certainly,  my  dear,  when  I  have  time,  I  will 
tell  you  about  it." 

"  Where  is  Pompeii,  mamma  ?" 

"Beyond  Resina  lies  the  village  called  Torre  del 

*  Pronounced  Pom-pay-ye. 


20  MARY  BROWN  AT   NAPLES. 

Greco,  and  beyond  that  the  one  called  Torre  del? 
Annunziata.  Behind  Torre  dell'  Annunziata,  and 
out  of  sight  from  where  we  stand,  is  Pompeii. 

"  And  why  cannot  we  go  to  see  it,  mamma  ?" 

"We  can,  my  child,  some  day." 

"  Oh,  I  could  walk  there  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
it.  How  long  does  it  take  to  go  there  from  Na 
ples  ?" 

"  About  three  hours  in  a  carriage,  and  the  Neapo 
litans  drive  very  rapidly.  But  see  the  houses  now. 
What  color  are  they,  Mary  ?" 

"  Why,  they  are  a  real  rose  color.  I  never  saw 
anything  so  beautiful.  And  see,  mamma,  Vesuvius 
is  a  lovely  violet  color,  and  the  little  cloud  above  is 
rosy  and  purple.  Oh,  how  fine  it  is  !  And  see  the 
water,  mamma  ;  what  a  beautiful  deep  blue.  And 
Capri  looks  just  like  fairy  land  ;  I  do  believe  it  is 
fairy  land." 

"  Then  you  can  visit  fairy  land,  Mary,"  replied 
Mrs.  Brown,  smiling  ;  "  for  it  is  not  difficult  to  go 
to  Capri." 

"  Well,  mamma,"  said  Mary,  laughing,  "  that 
pleases  me  ;  for  I  have  always  wanted  to  go  to  fairy 
land.  All  the  stories  about  it  are  so  beautiful 


MAKY    BROWN    AT   NAPLES.  21 

But  I  do  not  think  it  can  be  more  delightful  than 
Capri  looks  from  here,  do  you  ?" 

"  No,  my  dear.  When  I  was  of  your  age,  I  used 
to  think  a  good  deal  about  fairy  land,  and  since 
then  I  have  seen  many  places  which  at  a  distance 
looked  as  if  they  might  be  part  of  it.  Capri  is, 
indeed,  such  a  place." 

"  And  we  shall  go  there,  mamma  ?  Oh,  how 
glad  I  am  !"  And  Mary  again  danced  along  the 
beach. 

"  Now,  my  dear,"  said  her  mother,  "  the  sky  has 
faded.  Let  us  pick  up  a  few  shells  and  a  little  sea 
weed,  and  go  home.  The  shells  you  can  keep  as  a 
memento  of  the  Mediterranean." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  and  the  sea-weed  too.  You  know 
cousin  Elizabeth  brought  some  from  the  sea-side,  all 
put  on  paper  and  pressed.  It  was  beautiful,  just 
like  flowers.  I  can  make  some  pictures  like  hers 
with  mine  ;"  and  so  eagerly  did  Mary  search  for 
bits  of  the  weed,  that  before  her  mother  could  warn 
her  of  its  approach,  a  wave  came  up  and  swept 
over  her  feet,  wetting  them  very  thoroughly.  She 
screamed,  but  in  a  moment  the  wave  had  left  the 
sand,  and  she  saw  she  was  safe,  She  had,  however, 


22  MARY   BKOWN    AT   NAPLES. 

dropped  her  shawl  in  her  surprise,  and  she  thought 
it  was  carried  away,  when  she  saw  her  mother,  who 
had  sprung  forward  to  catch  it,  hold  it  up  in  her 
hand. 

"  You  had  a  narrow  escape,  my  dear  child,"  she 
said,  kissing  her ;  "  but  there  are  many  persons 
older  than  you  who  forget  how  treacherous  the 
waves  are.  I  have  seen  many  people  go  home  with 
wet  feet  from  the  beach.  Now,"  she  continued, 
taking  her  hand,  "  we  will  hasten  to  the  hotel,  that 
you  may  bathe  and  rub  your  feet,  put  on  dry  shoes 
and  stockings,  and  be  ready  for  dinner." 


MARY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES.  23 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  next  morning,  Mary  awoke  late,  for  her  jour 
ney  and  ramble  had  fatigued  her.  Her  first  thought 
was  where  she  should  go  that  day,  for  there  were  so 
many  places  to  visit  that  she  knew  her  mother  would 
go  somewhere  every  pleasant  day. 

Mrs.  Brown  was  sitting  by  the  table  reading, 
when  her  daughter  awoke.  "  Good  morning,  mam 
ma,"  cried  Mary,  "  or,  as  the  Italians  say,  *  Buon 
giorno.'  Where  shall  we  go  to-day,  mamma  ?" 

"  Nowhere,  I  think,  my  dear ;  it  rains." 

"  Rains  ?     Oh,  I  am  so  sorry  !" 

Mrs.  Brown  smiled,  and  said,  "  My  dear  Mary,  we 
can  pass  the  day  pleasantly  together  in  this  room." 

"  Oh,  I  know  we  can,  but  I  was  hoping  to  go  up 
Vesuvius,  or  to  go  to  Pompeii,  or  Herculaneum,  or 
Capri  to-day,  and  I  am  so  impatient  to  see  every 
thing." 


24  MAKY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES. 

"If  you  see  these  wonderful  places  too  soon, 
Mary,  you  will  not  understand  much  about  them. 
I  am  glad  it  rains  to-day,  for  we  will  sit  here  to 
gether,  and  I  will  tell  you  something  about  them, 
and  you  can  ask  me  any  questions  you  please.  You 
can  look  out  on  the  map  all  the  places  we  talk  about, 
and  the  day  will  be  pleasantly  and  usefully  spent." 

"Thank  you,  dear  mamma  ;  I  know  it  will  be 
pleasant.  I  always  love  to  have  you  tell  me  about 
things  better  than  to  read  about  them." 

"  But  by  and  by,*  Mary,  you  must  read  about 
these  things.  There  are  several  fine  works  about 
them,  which  you  will  enjoy  when  you  are  older." 

"  I  ought  not  to  have  come  here  until  I  had  read 
them,  ought  I,  mamma  ?" 

"  Perhaps  you  will  come  again  after  you  have 
read  them  ;  and,  in  any  case,  what  you  see  now 
will  help  you  to  understand  them." 

After  breakfast,  Mary  sat  down  to  hem  a  hand 
kerchief,  and  Mrs.  Brown  took  her  portfolio  and 
pencils  and  seated  herself  by  the  window,  to  make 
a  sketch  of  one  of  the  opposite  houses.  She 
sharpened  one  of  her  pencils  and  began  the  sketch, 
and  as  she  drew  the  first  lines,  she  said  : 


MARY   BROW!*    AT   NAPLES  25 

"  Mount  Vesuvius,  Mary,  did  not  always  look  as 
it  now  does.  Once  on  a  time  there  stood  on  the 
southeastern  coast  of  the  Bay  of  Naples  a  great 
mountain,  called  Mons  Summanus.  On  its  top  was 
a  temple  dedicated  to  Jupiter  Tonans." 

"  I  have  heard  about  Jupiter,  mamma  ;  he  was 
the  chief  of  all  the  gods,  and  carried  a  thunder 
bolt,  and  had  an  eagle  beside  his  throne.  But  who 
was  Jupiter  Tonans  ?" 

"  Jupiter  Tonans  was  another  name  for  Jupiter. 
It  means  Jupiter  the  Thunderer,  and  was  given 
him  because,  he  was  supposed  to  make  the  thun 
der." 

"  Well,  mamma,  Jupiter  the  Thunderer,  then, 
had  a  temple  on  the  top  of  Mons  Summanus." 

"  Yes,  my  dear,  but  that  temple  fell  into  ruins  long, 
long  ago,  and  no  trace  remains.  The  mountain 
was  also  called  Vesuvius,  and  at  its  foot  sprang  up 
cities,  where  people  lived  and  cultivated  the  soil  and 
built  themselves  beautiful  houses.  The  country 
around  the  mountain  was  very  fertile,  and  was 
called  Campania  Felix,  or  the  Happy  Country, 
because  it  yielded  so  many  fine  fruits  and  such  good 
grab,  and  all  without  much  labor. 
3 


20  MARY    BROWN    AT   NAPLES. 

I 

"  Do  not  people  call  part  of  Arabia,  Arabia  Felix, 
for  the  same  reason  ?" 

"  Yes,  Mary.  Would  you  like  to  know  the  names 
of  some  of  the  cities  of  which  I  am  speaking  ?" 

"  Indeed,  I  should  ;  but  I  think  I  know  one  or 
two  of  them  already — Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  ?" 

"Yes,  my  love.  Another  one  was  named  Stabiae ; 
it  stood  where  Castel-a-mare  now  stands.  You  can 
look  out  Castel-a-mare  on  your  map." 

"  Here  it  is,  mamma." 

"  Pompeii  you  will  find  farther  to  the  north,  near 
Torre  dell'  Annunziata." 

"  I  have  found  it." 

"  Herculaneum,  which  lies  under  Resina,  is  about 
half  way  between  Pompeii  and  Naples.  Do  you  see 
them  all  ?" 

"  Yes,  mamma  ;  this  is  a  nice  little  map.  I  shall 
try  to  learn  it  by  heart,  while  we  are  at  Naples.  I 
am  studying  Geography,  am  I  not  ?"  and  Mary 
laughed. 

"You  are  studying  Geography  in  a  very  good 
way,  my  dear,  and  I  hope  you  will  remember  all  you 
learn.  These  cities — Herculaneum,  Pompeii,  and 
Stabia? — were  full  of  streets  and  houses.  The  streets 


MAEY    BKOWN   AT    NAPLES.  27 

were  paved,  and  there  were  fountains  in  them  where 
the  people  could  get  water.  You  know,  now-a-days, 
here  at  Naples,  the  people  get  water  from  the 
fountains.  On  the  walls  of  the  houses  there  were 
beautiful  pictures.  I  do  not  mean,  my  child,  that 
pictures  were  framed  and  hung  on  the  walls,  but 
that  the  walls  themselves  were  covered  with  bright 
colors,  and  with  landscapes  and  figures  of  men, 
women,  animals  and  flowers.  Even  the  columns  in 
the  courts  of  the  houses  were  painted  in  brilliant 
colors.  In  these  cities  there  were  theatres,  orna 
mented  with  marble  and  paintings  ;  and  there  were 
beautiful  temples  dedicated  to  the  gods.  All  was 
life  and  merriment  in  those  cities,  for  the  people 
were  fond  of  gaiety,  just  as  many  people  now  are." 

"And  did  they  ever  go  up  on  the  mountain, 
mamma  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes  •  but  the  mountain  was  not  easy  to 
ascend.  There  was  only  one  road  up  The  top  of 
the  mountain  was  very  singular  ;  it  looked  as  if  a 
great  basin  had  been  sunk  in  the  top,  and  this  basin 
was  full  of  green  vines,  that  grew  luxuriantly  in  that 
sheltered  spot.  Once  on  a  time,  a  little  army  en 
camped  in  this  hollow,  as  you  will  read,  one  of  these 


28  MART   BEOWN   AT   NAPLES. 

days,  when  you  study  more  of  the  history  of  the 
Romans." 

"Did  the  people  climb  over  into  this  basin, 
mamma  ?" 

"  There  was  a  kind  of  ravine  or  crack  in  the  side, 
through  which  they  went  in  ;  but  the  little  army  of 
which  I  spoke  to  you,  got  out  by  making  long 
ladders  of  the  vines,  on  which  they  climbed  to 
the  top." 

"  Why  did  they  not  go  out  through  the  ravine  ?" 

"  Because  their  enemies,  the  Romans,  had  placed 
themselves  in  front  of  it." 

"And  did  the  Romans  know  that  the  little  army 
could  get  out  ?" 

"  No  ;  they  were  very  much  surprised  when  the 
little  army,  under  its  general,  Spartacus,  came 
round,  and  attacked  them." 

"  That  was  very  strange,  mamma." 

"  I  think  it  was,  my  dear.  Pompeii  and  Hercula- 
neum,  as  you  see  on  your  map,  lay  quite  near  the 
foot  of  this  singular  mountain.  The  ground  they 
stood  on  was  not  like  ordinary  ground — it  was  lava. 
You  know  what  lava  is,  Mary  ?" 

"  Yes,  mamma  ;  it  is  rock  that  came  red-hot  out 


MAKY    BROWN   AT   NAPLES.  29 

of  a  volcano.  And  I  have  seen  some  here  in  Naples, 
have  I  not  ?  When  I  read  about  lava  in  my  Gea 
graphy,  I  did  not  think  I  should  see  any  so  soon." 

"You  saw  lava  in  America,  my  dear.  Cousin 
Elizabeth's  bracelet  was  of  lava,  you  know." 

"  Yes,  mamma  ;  but  it  did  not  seem  so  like  real 
lava  as  the  bracelets  and  pins  here  do.  I  think  it  is 
because  we  are  where  we  can  see  Vesuvius.  But 
how  does  lava  look,  before  they  carve  it  ?" 

"  The  kind  they  carve  is  a  solid,  hard  stone  ;  but 
there  are  several  forms  of  lava,  as  you  will  see 
when  we  go  up  Vesuvius.  As  I  was  saying,  Pompeii 
and  Herculaneum  were  built  on  ground  that  was 
made  up  of  lava.  It  is  supposed  that  this  lava 
flowed  down,  ages  ago,  in  great  streams,  from  the 
mountain.  There  is  no  record  of  any  eruption  from 
Mons  Summanus  or  Vesuvius,  before  the  great  one 
that  destroyed  the  cities." 

"  How  do  people  know,  then,  that  the  mountain 
was  a  volcano  so  long,  long  ago  ?  I  don't  see  how 
they  can  tell,  if  they  never  saw  it  on  fire." 

"  They  know  it  was  always  a  volcano  by  its 
peculiar  shape,  and  by  the  sort  of  rock  of  which  it 
is  composed,  as  well  as  by  the  kind  of  rock  of  which 
3* 


30  MARY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES 

the  country  around  is  made.  The  basin  full  of 
vines,  I  spoke  about,  was  the  old  crater,  which  had 
stopped  sending  out  fire." 

"But  I  don't  see  how  vines  could  grow  in  it, 
mamma  ?" 

"  They  probably  did  not,  my  dear,  until  a  great 
deal  of  time  had  elapsed  after  the  mountain  had 
sent  out  fire  and  lava.  The  holes  through  which 
the  lava  came  out,  gradually  filled  up  ;  and,  finally, 
after  a  great  many  years,  moss  grew  over  the  stony 
basin,  and  made  a  sort  of  soil.  Then,  seeds  were 
carried  up  there  by  the  winds,  and  sprang  up  and 
made  the  whole  basin  beautifully  green." 

"  Oh,  how  I  should  like  to  see  such  a  basin, 
mamma  !  Can  you  see  it  now  ?" 

"  It  has  greatly  altered,  my  dear,  but  a  little  of  it 
can  be  seen  yet.  What  there  is  left  of  its  edge  is 
called  Monte  Somma,  but  it  is  not  green  now.  Only 
bare  rocks  and  a  little  moss  are  to  be  seen.  You 
have  studied,  in  your  History,  about  the  Roman 
Emperors.  Can  you  tell  me  in  whose  reign  Christ 
was  born  ?" 

"  In  the  reign  of  Augustus,  mamma,  and  Augus 
tus  came  next  after  Julius  Caesar." 


MAKY   BKOWN   AT   NAPLES.  31 

"  Well,  Mary,  sixty-three  years  after  the  birth  of 
Christ,  a  great  earthquake  took  place  in  the  country 
at  the  foot  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  and  threw  down  a 
great  part  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum.  The  in 
habitants  of  Pompeii  were  so  much  alarmed,  that 
they  deserted  the  city.  After  a  time,  they  took 
courage  to  return  to  it,  and  they  attempted  to  repair 
the  injuries  done  by  the  earthquake.  During  the 
next  sixteen  years,  earthquakes  were  not  unfre- 
qucnt ;  one  of  them  reached  as  far  as  Naples,  and 
threw  down  a  theatre  there." 

"  Why,  mamma,  was  Naples  here  so  long  ago  ? 
I  can  hardly  believe  it." 

"  Naples  is  a  very  ancient  city,  my  dear.  Most 
of  the  Italian  towns  are  exceedingly  old.  But  to 
come  back  to  my  story:  Sixteen  years  after  the  first 
earthquake,  the  first  eruption  that  we  know  any 
thing  about  took  place  from  Vesuvius.  In  what 
year  would  that  be,  Mary  1" 

"  The  earthquake  began  in  the  year  63 — It  would 
be  the  year  79,  mamma." 

"Seventy-nine  years  after  Christ,  in  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Titus,  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  still 
stood,  although  the  earthquakes  had  greatly  dam- 


32  MABY  BROWN   AT  NAPLES. 

aged  them.  The  people  were  rebuilding  some  tem 
ples  which  had  been  injured,  and  they  probably  did 
not  dream  of  any  further  danger  to  their  city.  In 
August  of  that  year,  there  were  several  earthquakes, 
but  the  inhabitants  were  somewhat  accustomed  to 
them,  and  did  not  think  the  mountain  had  any 
thing  to  do  with  them.  One  day,  towards  the 
middle  of  the  month,  a  cloud  of  vapor  rose  from 
the  mountain.  It  was  in  shape  like  an  Italian 
pine  tree,  which  is  not  at  all  like  our  pine  tree,  but 
spreads  out  at  the  top  like  an  umbrella,  as  we  saw 
yesterday.  This  cloud  was  bright  in  some  parts, 
and  dark  in  others  ;  for  part  of  it  was  flame,  and 
part  cinders  and  ashes." 

"  Oh,  mamma,  it  must  have  been  terrible  !  How 
frightened  the  people  who  lived  about  the  mountain 
must  have  been  !" 

"  Stones  and  rocks  fell  upon  the  earth  from  this 
mass  of  cloud  ;  these  stones  were  hot,  and  fell  so 
thickly  and  fast  that  it  was  a  shower  of  rocks." 

"  It  was  like  a  great  hail-storm,  mamma." 

11  Far  worse,  my  child.  The  stones  broke  in  the 
roofs  of  the  houses,  and  shattered  the  statues  and 
marble  ornaments.  The  land  shook,  and  the  houses 


MARY   BKOWN   AT  NAPLES.  33 

tottered.  Lightnings  of  various  colors  flashed  from 
the  cloud.  The  inhabitants  did  not  know  where  to 
go  to  escape  the  danger.  They  did  not  dare  to 
stay  in  their  houses,  and  in  the  open  air  it  was 
worse  yet.  The  shore  was  altered  by  the  swelling 
of  the  land,  and  the  sea  fell  back  from  it,  so  that 
the  beach  was  broader  than  it  was  before.  Many 
great  fishes  were  left  upon  the  shore  by  the  water 
when  it  rolled  away.'7 

"  Why,  mother,  I  should  suppose  the  people 
would  have  thought  the  last  day  had  come." 

"  They  did,  my  dear.  There  were  but  few  Chris 
tians  then.  The  people  of  Italy,  for  the  most  part, 
still  worshipped  the  gods  about  whom  you  have  read. 
They  prayed  to  these  gods,  and  exclaimed  that  the 
last  hour  was  come  ;  that  the  earth  was  to  be 
burnt  up  ;  and  that  they  and  their  gods,  and  the 
earth,  would  all  be  destroyed  together.  The  cloud 
from  Vesuvius  came  down  and  covered  the  land  and 
the  sea,  and  made  it  dark  at  mid-day.  The  moun 
tain  kept  showering  down  stones  and  fire,  and 
finally,  great  showers  of  ashes  fell.  They  looked 
like  thick  flakes  of  snow,  and  lay  white  on  the 
ground,  in  some  places.  Hot  water,  too,  fell  from  the 


34  MAKY   BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

mountain,  and  this  water  mixed  with  the  ashes  in  the 
air,  and  came  clown  in  great  splashes  of  thick  mud." 

"  That  must  have  been  dreadful,  mamma." 

"  Yes,  my  child,  with  this  mud  Pompeii  and  Her- 
culaneum,  these  great  cities,  were  deluged.  Stones, 
and  ashes,  and  cinders  also  fell  upon  them  in  thick 
showers.  Stones  fell  at  a  great  distance  in  the 
country  around,  and  people  who  went  into  the  fields 
put  pillows  on  their  heads  to  protect  them. 

"  How  long  did  it  continue  dark,  mamma  ?" 

"  More  than  two  days,  my  child ;  and  these 
showers  were  falling  all  the  time." 

"  Was  it  as  dark  as  night  ?" 

"  Darker  than  it  is  at  night  out  of  doors.  The 
author  who  describes  it,  and  who  was  all  that  time 
in  the  neighborhood,  says  it  was  a  darkness  like 
that  of  a  room  when  all  the  light  is  excluded.  You 
know,  if  you  shut  all  the  light  out  of  a  room,  it  is 
darker  than  it  is  out  of  doors  at  night.  When  you 
go  into  a  dark  room  you  have  to  feel  your  way,  you 
cannot  see  anything  ;  but  out  of  doors  at  midnight 
you  can  see  something." 

"  What  did  the  people  do,  mamma  ?  I  don't  see 
how  they  could  find  their  way  at  all." 


MARY  BROWN   AT   NAPLES.  35 

"  That  was  the  great  difficulty,  Mary.  They,  of 
course,  had  to  move  slowly.  They  tried  to  carry 
torches,  but  the  sudden  gusts  of  wind  blew  them 
out.  The  earth,  too,  was  trembling  and  rocking 
under  them,  and  even,  several  miles  away,  it  was 
so  unsteady  that  the  carriages  the  people  had 
brought  out,  and  prepared  for  their  flight,  rocked 
so  that  they  could  hardly  get  into  them.  The 
darkness  kept  people  from  seeing  each  other,  and 
shrieks  and  cries  were  heard  on  every  side.  Parents 
were  calling  for  their  children,  husbands  for  their 
wives,  for  if  they  once  got  separated,  there  was  little 
hope  that  they  would  find  each  other  again." 

"  How  awful  it  must  have  been,  mamma." 

"  Awful,  indeed,  my  child  ;  we  cannot  imagine 
how  terrible  it  was." 

"  How  did  it  end,  mamma  ?" 

"  On  the  third  day,  the  cloud  gradually  scattered 
and  faded  away  ;  and  there  lay  Pompeii  and  Her- 
culaneum,  all  in  ruins  and  buried  beneath  the  stones 
and  mud,  and  ashes.  The  streets  had  gradually 
become  filled  with  these  substances  ;  the  houses  were 
blocked  up  :  even  the  rooms  were  partly  full  of  fine 
dust  and  ashes,  and  the  cities  were  really  under,  the 


36  MARY  BROWN  AT  NAPLES. 

surface  of  the  ground  ;  they  were  entirely  bu 
ried." 

"  Were  they  really  all  buried  up,  dear  mamma  ? 
But  the  people  were  not  buried  too  ?" 

"  Many  of  them  were,  my  dear." 

"  Were  they  buried  alive,  mamma  ?" 

"  Some  were  probably  buried  alive  ;  others  were 
killed  by  blows  from  heavy  stones,  or  from  the 
roofs  and  columns  that  fell  down  ;  but  most  were 
probably  suffocated  by  the  poisonous  vapors  that 
came  from  the  volcano,  and  then  they  were  buried 
by  the  ashes  and  stones  that  fell  into  the  streets. 
The  fine  ashes,  too,  sifted  through  the  doors  and 
crevices  into  the  houses,  and  buried  those  that  had 
died  in  the  rooms." 

"  How  strange  it  was,  and  how  terrible  !  Were 
any  of  the  people  ever  found,  mamma  ?" 

"  It  was  by  finding  their  skeletons,  my  daughter, 
that  people  ever  knew  anything  about  them.  The 
city  was  dug  out  about  seventeen  hundred  years 
after  it  was  buried." 

"And  were  the  bodies  there  then,  mamma? 
Seventeen  hundred  years  is  a  very  great  while  1" 

"It  is  a  great  while,  my  love.     The  bodies  had 


MARY    BEOWN   AT   NAPLES.  37 

gone  to  decay,  but  the  skeletons  were  fouml.  They 
were  in  many  different  positions  ;  some  were  sitting; 
some  standing  ;  some  seemed  to  have  been  knocked 
down  by  a  heavy  blow.  One  skeleton  was  dis 
covered  with  a  great  marble  column  lying  across  it, 
and,  without  doubt,  the  column  fell  on  the  man 
while  he  was  alive.  But  about  these  things  I  will 
tell  you  more  another  time,  for  now  you  have 
hemmed  your  handkerchief,  and  I  have  finished  my 
drawing.  The  rain,  too,  has  ceased,  and  although 
the  sun  does  not  shine,  we  will  go  out  and  take  a 
walk." 


38  MABY    BEOWN    AT   NAPLES. 


CHAPTER    III. 

MRS.  BROWX  and  Mary  came  in  late  from  their 
walk,  and  while  they  were  dressing  for  dinner,  Mary 
said,  "Please,  mamma,  tell  me  more  about  the 
buried  cities." 

"  With  pleasure,  my  dear,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  Well,  mamma,  how  did  Vesuvius  look  after  the 
great  eruption  ?" 

"  One  side  of  the  basin  I  told  you  about,  was 
broken  off,  and  the  old  crater  was  left  like  a  plain  ; 
and  in  the  middle  of  it  stood  a  great  cone,  which 
was  not  there  before.  This  cone  was  made  up  of 
stones  and  ashes,  and  was  Mount  Vesuvius  as  you 
now  see  it,  only  the  cone  has  been  growing  lower 
and  lower  ever  since." 

"  A  cone  is  the  shape  of  a  sugar  loaf,  is  it  not, 
mamma  ?' 


MAKY   BKOWN    AT   NAPLES.  39 

"  Yes,  and  Vesuvius  has,  you  see,  something  of 
that  shape,  only  it  is  not  so  steep." 

"How  strange  it  must  have  looked  to  see  a 
new  peak  on  the  top  of  the  mountain." 

"  No  doubt  it  did  seem  strange.  It  was  a  great 
and  terrible  monument  of  the  change  the  country 
had  undergone." 

"  And,  mamma,  what  did  the  people  at  Rom£,  and 
Naples,  and  all  over  Italy,  think  of  this  eruption  ?" 

"  That  we  do  not  know,  my  love  ;  few  books 
were  written  in  those  days,  and  none  were  printed, 
you  know.  Of  those  that  were  written,  few  have 
come  down  to  us.  Almost  all  we  know  about  this 
eruption  we  learn  from  the  letters  of  one  man, 
named  Pliny.  The  barbarians  from  Germany  over 
ran  all  Italy,  as  you  have  read  at  school,  and  they 
destroyed  almost  all  records  of  those  days." 

"  But  everybody  knew  about  the  cities,  mamma  ; 
everybody  knew  they  were  under  the  ground  ?" 

"  It  is  supposed  that  the  people  gradually  forgot 
where  they  were.  It  is  true,  that  after  the  eruption 
was  over,  and  the  deposits  from  the  mountain  had 
cooled,  the  common  people  came  and  built  huts 
above  the  ruins.  Their  descendants  lived  here  for 


40  MARY    BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

about  four  hundred  years,  and  then  another  erup 
tion  drove  them  away,  and  they  never  dared  occupy 
the  place  again.  Then  the  barbarians  came  into 
Italy,  and  the  Italians  lost  trace  of  these  cities,  as 
they  did  of  many  other  things." 

"But,  mamma,  did  not  the  people,  when  they 
came  and  built  above  the  old  houses,  try  to  dig 
down  and  see  if  anything  could  be  got  out  of  the 
ruins  ?" 

"It  is  thought  that  they  did,  for  some  houses, 
when  opened  in  modern  times,  bear  traces  of  having 
been  excavated  before,  long,  long  ago." 

"  How  long  were  those  cities  unknown,  mam 
ma  ?" 

"  In  the  little  town  of  Resina,  which  you  saw  on 
your  map,  more  than  sixteen  hundred  years  after 
the  great  eruption,  a  man  began  to  dig  a  well.  As 
he  descended,  he  found  in  the  earth  pieces  of  marble, 
which  seemed  to  have  belonged  to  some  beautiful 
pavement.  A  prince,  who  was  building  a  palace 
not  far  off,  hearing  what  the  man  had  found,  bought 
the  well,  and  set  men  to  work  to  dig  farther.  They 
dug  into  the  earth  at  the  side  of  the  well,  near  the 
bottom,  and  found  that  they  came  against  walls. 


MARY  BROWN   AT  NAPLES.  41 

They  kept  on  excavating,  and  found  that  they  were 
penetrating  into  a  buried  city.  Marble  and  bronze 
statues  were  found,  and  beautiful  pieces  of  carving, 
and  these  were  brought  up  out  of  the  well,  and  put 
into  the  house  of  the  Prince,  or  sent  away  to  other 
countries.  After  awhile  they  gave  up  digging  ; 
but,  thirty  years  later,  Charles  III.,  King  of  Naples, 
had  a  great  many  things  dug  up  to  put  in  his  palace 
at  Portici." 

"And  was  Pompeii  discovered  by  accident,  too, 
mamma  !" 

"  Pompeii,  also,  was  discovered  by  means  of  a 
well.  Some  small  remnants  of  houses  still  projected 
above  the  ground,  and  one  man  had  suggested  that 
they  might  belong  to  the  city  of  Pompeii,  which  had 
been  so  long  lost.  No  one,  however,  had  thought 
of  examining  the  ground,  and  if  the  well  had  not 
been  dug,  no  one  can  tell  how  much  longer  the  city 
would  have  remained  unexplored." 

"  Was  it  found  after  Herculaneum  1" 

"  Yes,  my  child,  and  for  a  number  of  years  many 

men  were  at  work  digging  there.     Then  there  was  a 

war  ;   for  Napoleon  Bonaparte   took  Naples,  and 

made  his  general,  Murat,  king.     Murat  was  greatly 

4* 


MARY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES. 

interested  in  Pompeii,  and  had  the  great  amphi 
theatre,  at  one  end  of  the  town,  uncovered.  You 
know  what  an  amphitheatre  was,  Mary  ?" 

"  Yes,  mamma,  you  told  me  about  it.  It  was  a 
great  oval  building,  without  a  roof.  All  round  the 
inside  were  rows  of  seats,  which  slanted  from  the  top 
to  the  bottom,  so  that  those  who  sat  high  up  could 
see  over  the  heads  of  those  who  sat  low  down.  And 
there  were  stairs  leading  up  to  the  rows  of  seats. 
The  floor  in  the  middle  of  the  house  was  covered 
with  sand.  The  amphitheatre  was  a  great  theatre, 
only  built  differently  from  theatres  now-a-days." 

"  You  are  right,  my  dear.  The  Romans,  and  all 
the  people  of  Italy,  were  very  fond  of  the  amuse 
ments  of  the  amphitheatre.  You  know  that  lions, 
and  tigers,  and  elephants,  and  other  animals  were 
brought  from  a  great  distance,  and  made  to  tear 
each  other  to  pieces,  for  the  diversion  of  the  spec 
tators." 

"And,  mamma,  sometimes  men  were  made  to 
fight  with  each  other,  instead  of  wild  beasts." 

"They  fought  with  each  other  and  with  wild 
beasts,  too,  my  love.  Men  who  fought  were  called 
gladiators." 


MAEY  BROWN   AT  NAPLES.  43 

"  And  the  people  of  Pompeii  liked  to  look  at  such 
things,  mamma  ?  Why,  I  think  it  was  a  great  deal 
worse  than  the  bull-fights  in  Spain.  I  have  seen 
pictures  of  the  bull-fights." 

"The  shows  in  the  amphitheatre  were  more 
cruel.  The  loss  of  life  was  far  greater.  .Some 
times  hundreds  of  animals  were  killed  at  once.  It 
seems  strange  to  us  that  it  can  be  any  amusement 
to  people  to  see  animals  kill  each  other." 

"  I  am  sure,  mamma,  it  is  bad  enough  to  know 
that  they  must  be  killed  for  us  to  eat." 

"Yes,  Mary.  As  I  was  saying,  the  French  unco 
vered  the  amphitheatre  at  Pompeii,  and  we  can  see 
it  when  we  visit  the  city." 

"  How  strange  it  will  seem,  to  sit  on  the  seats  the 
people  of  Pompeii  sat  on  so  many,  many  years  ago  1" 

"  Indeed  it  will,  Mary  ;  and  to  walk  along  the 
streets  where  the  Pompeiaus  used  to  walk,  e,nd  to 
see  the  houses  where  they  lived,  and  the  shops 
where  they  bought  bread,  and  wine,  and  oil.  It  is 
now  more  than  a  hundred  years  since  people  began 
to  uncover  the  city.  It  was,  of  course,  a  difficult 
task.  Just  think,  if  New  York  were  all  buried,  how 
difficult  it  would  be,  and  how  much  time  it  would 


44  MARY   BKOWN   AT  NAPLES. 

take  to  dig  the  earth  out  of  the  streets  and  houses. 
Pompeii  was  a  small  town,  compared  with  New 
York,  and  the  houses  were  not  so  high  as  New  York 
houses,  yet  it  took  a  great  many  men,  and  a  great 
deal  of  patience  to  do  what  has  been  done  ;  and 
even  now,  only  one  fourth  of  the  city  has  been 
uncovered." 

"  And  did  they  find  houses  just  like  ours,  mamma, 
and  were  there  things  in  them  ?" 

"  One  question  at  a  time,  my  child.  The  houses 
in  those  days  were  not  built  like  ours.  There  was 
one  great  square  room  or  hall,  and  from  this  room 
branched  off  the  bedrooms  and  dining-room  and  all 
the  principal  rooms  of  the  house.  This  great  square 
room  was  called  the  atrium.  In  the  middle  of  its 
roof  was  a  large  hole." 

"  Uncovered,  mamma  ?" 

"  Yes,  open  to  the  sky." 

"  I  should  think  the  rain  would  have  fallen  in." 

"So  it  did,  my  dear.  In  the  middle  of  the  room 
was  a  square  or  oblong  basin,  paved  with  marble. 
This  basin  was  sunk  into^tlie  floor,  and  from  a  small 
hole  in  the  bottom,  a  jjflpe  led  down,  through  the 
ground,  into  a  cistern.  The  rain  fell  through  the 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   NAPLES.  4:5 

hole  in  the  roof  into  this  basin,  and  was  carried 
away  by  the  pipe." 

"  What  was  the  use  of  the  cistern,  mamma  ?" 

"  It  had  the  same  use  that  any  cistern  has,  my 
child.  Its  top  was  enclosed  by  a  round  curb  cut 
out  of  a  single  piece  of  marble.  This  curb  stood  in 
the  atrium  at  one  end  of  the  basin  that  caught  the 
water.  The  basin  was  called  the  impluvium." 

"Impluvium,  mamma?  I  don't  know  that  I  can 
remember  that  word.  It  is  so  long." 

"It  is  no  longer  than  many  words  which  you 
remember  easily.  Say  it  over  several  times,  and 
spell  it  once  or  twice,  and  you  will  not  forget  it.  It 
comes  from  two  Latin  words — in,  which  means  into, 
and  pluvium,  which  means  rain.  So  it  means  a  place 
for  the  rain  to  fall  into" 

"  I  will  say  it  now,  mamma  :  impluvium,  implu 
vium,  impluvium" 

"  And  can  you  tell  me  the  name  of  the  room  in 
which  the  impluvium  was  ?" 

"At .     I  forget  it." 

" Atrium,  my  dear." 

"Atrium,  atrium.  Now  I  shall  remember  it, 
mamma." 


46  MARY   BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

"  The  bedrooms  which  branched  off  from  the 
atrium  were  generally  small.  The  walls  of  the 
atrium,  and  of  the  rooms  which  branched  from  it, 
were  covered  with  plaster  or  stucco,  and  this  was 
painted  red,  or  yellow,  or  some  other  brilliant 
color." 

"  How  pretty  they  must  have  "been,  mamma  !" 

"  Little  columns  were  sometimes  painted  on  the 
walls,  and  then  the  red  and  yellow  were  sometimes 
put  on,  as  if  they  were  curtains  or  pieces  of  cloth 
hanging  by  two  corners  from  these  columns.  In  the 
middle  of  these  painted  curtains  was  usually  a  pic 
ture  of  a  cupid,  or  a  dancing  girl,  or  a  landscape,  or  a 
picture  taken  from  some  story  about  the  gods,  or 
the  heroes  of  old  times.  These  pictures  are  very 
graceful,  and  are  almost  the  only  paintings  we  have 
that  were  made  at  that  time." 

"  How  I  should  like  to  see  them.  Can  we  see 
them  still,  mamma  ?" 

"  Some  of  the  houses  are  left  as  they  were  found, 
Mary  ;  and  we  shall  see  the  pictures  on  them  when 
we  go  to  Pompeii  ;  but  the  walls  of  a  great  many 
of  the  houses  were  carefully  taken  down  and  brought 
to  Naples." 


MARY   BROWN    AT   NAPLES.  47 

"  Where  are  they,  mamma  ?" 

"In  the  great  museum,  my  child.  It  is  called 
the  Museo  Borbonico,  or  Bourbon  Museum." 

"  And  shall  we  go  there,  mamma  ?" 

"  I  hope  so  ;  for  besides  the  pictures,  there  are  a 
great  many  statues,  and  other  interesting  things 
there  from  the  buried  cities.  The  walls  and  ceilings 
of  the  houses  at  Pompeii  were  richly  ornamented,  as 
I  have  said.  Some  of  the  houses  were  two  stories 
high,  others  but  one.  The  upper  part  of  many 
of  them  was  destroyed  by  the  hot  stones  and 
ashes  that  fell  upon  them.  The  pavement  of  the 
Louses  was  of  mosaic  ;  you  know  what  that  is, 
Mary  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  mamma  ;  different  colored  stones  and 
little  pieces  of  marble  laid  together  in  patterns, 
sometimes  making  birds  and  animals,  sometimes  men 
and  women  and  many  pretty  things.  I  wish  we  had 
£uch  pavements  at  home,  mamma." 

"  Labor  costs  too  much,  my  child.  When  these 
beautiful  things  were  made,  workmen  earned  but 
little.  The  rich  spent  vast  sums  of  money  on  their 
houses,  and  they  employed  a  great  many  people  at 
low  prices.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  we  are 


48  MAKY   BROWN   AT   NAPLES. 

talking  about  Pompeii.  How  do  you  think  the  din 
ing-rooms  were  arranged  ?" 

"  Why,  like  ours,  mamma,  were  they  not  ?" 

"  No,  my  dear.  All  round  the  room  were  broad 
benches,  and  in  front  of  them  was  a  table  which 
also  extended  round^the  room.  On  the  broad 
benches  were  placed  cushions,  and  the  people  lay 
down  on  them  to  take  their  meals." 

"  How  queer,  mamma." 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  room  the  servants  stood,  to 
wait  upon  the  table." 

11 1  am  sure,  mamma,  it  was  a  very  lazy  way  of 
taking  their  meals,  was  it  not  ?" 

"  The  libraries  were  also  singular.  There  were 
no  books  like  ours.  The  art  of  printing  was  not 
known.  Everything  was  written  with  a  pen  made 
of  a  reed.  They  had  no  paper,  but  used,  instead, 
sheets  of  papyrus.  These  sheets  were  fastened 
together  so  as  to  make  a  very  long  piece,  and  this 
was  rolled  up,  after  it  had  been  written  on,  and  was 
put  into  a  box." 

"  And  they  had  to  unroll  them,  when  they  read 
them,  mamma." 

"  Certainly,  Mary.     A  large  library  of  such  books 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   NAPLES.  49 

or  scrolls,  was  found  at  Herculaueum  ;  but  no 
thing  of  the  kind  has  yet  been  discovered  at 
Pompeii." 

"  Could  those  that  were  found  at  Herculaneum  be 
read,  mamma  ?  I  should  think  they  would  have 
been  spoiled." 

"  They  were  very  much  injured  by  the  fire,  Mary; 
they  were  like  rolls  of  burnt  paper." 

"  Why  then,  they  must  have  fallen  all  in  pieces, 
mamma." 

"  They  had  to  be  handled  with  great  care  to  pre 
vent  their  crumbling  away,  and  it  was  a  long  tune 
before  any  one  found  out  how  to  unroll  them  with 
out  breaking  them  into  powder." 

"  How  did  they  do  it  at  last,  mamma  ?" 
•"  They  took  long  strips  of  a  very  thin  but  strong 
substance,  called  '  goldbeater's  skin.'  This  skin  was 
covered  with  a  kind  of  glue,  and  then  the  scroll  was 
laid  upon  it.  The  scroll  was  then  slowly  unrolled, 
and  it  stuck  to  the  skin." 

"  And  could  people  read  what  was  on  the  scrolls, 
mamma  ?" 

"Yes,'  by  perseverance  they  could.     We  •  shall 
see  the  scrolls  in  the  museum." 
5 


50'  MART   BROWX   AT   NAPLES. 

"  How  nice  it  is,  inamma,  to  have  all  these  things 
kept  for  us  to  see.  I  shall  be  so  delighted  to  look 
at  them  " 

"  Many  skeletons  were  found  in  Pompeii,  Mary. 
In  one  building,  which  had  been  the  barracks  of 
soldiers,  sixty-three  skeletons  were  found.  Most  of 
them  were  men,  but  there  were  some  women  too, 
and  the  bones  of  one  little  baby  were  discovered. 
It  is  supposed,  therefore,  that  some  of  the  officers 
had  their  wives  and  children  with  them.  Pieces  of 
rich  dresses,  and  golden  ornaments  were  found  in 
the  upper  rooms  of  the  barracks,  as  well  as  weapons 
which  had  belonged  to  the  officers." 

"  But,  mamma,  what  made  so  many  soldiers  stay  ? 
Why  did  they  not  run  away  ?" 

"  The  discipline  of  the  Italian  soldiers  was  very 
severe  in  those  days.  They  were  taught  to  stay  at 
their  post  until  the  last  moment,  and  not  to  be 
afraid  of  anything,  not  even  of  death.  This  is 
thought  to  account  for  so  many  skeletons  being 
found  together  in  these  barracks." 

"  It  was  too  bad,  mamma.  They  might  as  well 
have 'saved  themselves,  for  they  could  not  defend 
the  city  against  the  eruption." 


MARY   BEOWN    AT   NAPLES.  51 

"  In  some  of  the  dwelling-houses,  too,  skeletons 
were  found,  and  in  the  streets  also,  and  in  the 
gardens  and  temples.  In  one  very  large  and  hand 
some  house,  on  the  street  of  Tombs,  eighteen  skele 
tons  were  found,  crowded  together  in  a  long  arched 
vault  or  cellar  under  the  house.  It  is  supposed 
that  they  were  ladies  who  hid  themselves  there  to 
escape  the  stones  and  ashes  that  were  falling  all 
round." 

"  But  they  were  killed  all  the  same,  mamma." 

"  Yes,  my  love.  They  were  either  suffocated  by 
the  vapor  and  gases  from  Vesuvius,  or  else  by 
the  fine  powder  which  sifted  in  through  the  win 
dows  ;  for  this  vault  was  found  full  of  fine  dust, 
which  had  hardened.  Great  jugs  for  wine  were 
discovered  in  this  vault,  and  they,  too,  were  full  of 
ashes.  These  ashes  gathered  all  around  the  un 
happy  people  who  hid  in  this  cellar,  and  buried 
them. 

"  Were  they  found  by  the  people  who  were  dig 
ging,  mamma  ?" 

"  Yes,  and  the  earth  which  had  buried  them  up, 
had  hardened  in  just  the  shape  of  the  bodies.  It 
formed  moulds  around  the  trinkets  the  ladies  wore, 


2  MAKY   BROW.S"   AT   NAPLES. 

and  some  of  these  moulds  are  still  kept  in  the 
museum." 

"  But  where  were  the  men  of  the  house,  mamma  ? 
Did  they  get  away,  do  you  suppose  ?" 

"  One  of  them  was  found  near  a  gate  which 
opened  from  the  garden  into  a  street.  The  key  of 
the  gate  was  beside  him.  Near  him  was  another 
skeleton,  probably  that  of  a  servant,  which  had  in 
its  bony  hand  a  bag  containing  golden  coins  and 
some  valuable  vases." 

"  They  were  trying  to  get  away,  were  they  not  ?" 

"No  doubt,  my  dear.  The  house  near  which 
they  were  found  is  called  the  Villa  Diomedes." 

"  Was  the  man  named  Diomedes,  mamma  ?" 

"  No  one  knows,  my  dear.  He  is  called  Dio 
medes,  because  a  tomb  near  this  villa  has  that  name 
upon  it.  Many  of  the  houses  and  streets  in  Pom 
peii  have  received  their  names  from  something  found 
in  them,  or  near  them  j  but  we  do  not  know  what 
the  Pompeians  called  them.  There,  Mary,  is  the 
dinner-bell  I  Are  you  ready  ?" 

"  Oh  yes,  quite  ready,  but  I  am  sorry  dinner  has 
come  so  soon.  I  want  to  hear  more." 

"  Another  time,  Mary." 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   POMPEII-  53 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  next  morning,  Mary  looked  with  delight  at 
the  clear  sky  and  at  the  bright  beams  of  the  sun  on 
the  opposite  houses. 

"  Now,  mamma,"  she  exclaimed,  "  we  have  a 
beautiful  day." 

"  We  have  a  beautiful  morning,  Mary.  Have 
you  never  heard  the  song  : 

'  Many  a  bright  and  sunshiny  morning 
Turns  to  a  dark  and  dismal  day '  ?" 

"But  surely,  dear  mamma,  such  a  morning  as 
this  can  never  turn  into  a  rainy  day.  And  in  Italy 
they  have  such  clear  skies  and  such  fine  weather." 

"  Even  in  Italy,  at  this  season  of  the  year,  the 
skies  are  changeable,  Mary.  However,  we  will 
trust  them  this  time  and  go  to  Pompeii,  for  I  know 
my  daughter  is  very  anxious  to  see  the  strange 
city." 

5* 


54:  MARY  BKOWN   AT   TOMPEH. 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "  I  am  so 
happy  I" 

No  sooner  was  breakfast  over,  than  Mrs.  Brown 
and  her  daughter  started  on  their  expedition. 
In  front  of  the  hotel  they  engaged  one  of  the 
little  one-horse  wagons,  so  common  in  Naples,  and 
drove  rapidly  out  of  the  city.  They  passed  along 
the  quay,  or  wharf,  which  affords  a  fine  view  of  the 
blue  Bay  of  Naples  and  the  distant  island  of  Capri. 
Mary  was  greatly  interested  by  what  she  saw  in  the 
streets.  Everybody  seemed  to  be  out  of  doors. 
Wagon-makers,  cobblers,  tinkers,  cooks,  and  almost 
all  kinds  of  trades-people  were  doing  their  work  out 
side  of  their  shops.  In  one  place,  women  were  fry 
ing  hasty-pudding,  which  men  stopped  to  buy  and 
eat  for  breakfast,  as  they  went  to  their  work.  Not 
far  off,  a  man  was  boiling  snails,  which  the  men  ate 
with  their  pudding.  Beautiful  golden '  oranges  were 
piled  up  in  great  heaps  in  the  shops  aud  on  tables 
in  the  street,  and  dried  figs  were  hanging  outside  of 
the  doors,  and  were  also  heaped  up  on  tables  for  sale. 

"  Why,  mamma,"  exclaimed  Mary,  "  I  never  saw 
so  many  oranges  and  figs  in  my  life.  What  do  the 
people  do  with  them  all  ?" 


MARY   BKOW3T   AT    POMPEII.  55 

"  They  eat  them,  Mary." 

"  I  should  not  like  to  eat  the  figs,  mother.  They 
do  not  look  nice,  and  they  have  sticks  stuck  through 
them.'7 

"  Some  of  them  have,  my  dear.  They  are  put  on 
those  sticks  when  they  are  first  picked,  and  then 
they  are  hung  up  to  dry.  Some  are  dried  without 
sticks,  and  some  are  packed  into  boxes." 

"  Is  sugar  put  with  them  to  make  them  so  sweet, 
mamma  ?" 

"  No,  Mary  ;  nothing  is  put  with  them.  All  the 
sweetness  is  in  the  fig  itself.  As  the  juice  dries 
out,  it  leaves  the  sugar  you  sometimes  see  on  the 
outside." 

.  "  The  figs  we  had  after  dinner  yesterday,  mamma, 
were  the  sweetest  I  ever  tasted." 

"  Those,  Mary,  were  skinned  before  they  were 
dried.  The  figs  we  usually  have  are  dried  with 
their  skins  on." 

"  The  Neapolitans  must  live  on  them,  mamma, 
they  have  so  many.  I  should  like  to  live  on  them 
myself." 

"A  diet  of  oranges  and  figs  seems  very  agreeable 
to  us,  Mary  ;  and  it  is  delightful  to  see  the  oranges 


56  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

and  lemons  hanging  ripe  upon  the  treeJ.  How 
fragrant  the  air  must  be  when  they  are  in  blossom." 

"  Oh,  mamma,  it  would  be  lovely  to  be  in  Italy 
then  1  But  see  those  women  busy  at  work  ;  what 
are  they  doing  ?" 

"  They  are  making  nets  for  the  fishermen." 

"  How  rapidly  they  do  it.  But  why  do  they  sit 
out  here  among  the  boats,  with  the  sun  shining  on 
their  heads  ?" 

"  They  like  to  be  in  the  open  air,  my  daughter. 
The  Neapolitans  have  always  been  noted  for  living 
out  of  doors." 

"  I  do  not  wonder  at  it,  do  you,  mamma  ?  It  is 
so  pleasant  here." 

Everything  Mary  saw  delighted  her.  Her  tongue 
was  constantly  in  motion,  and  she  kept  her  mother 
busy  answering  questions.  Mrs.  Brown  was  very 
willing  to  listen  to  all  her  daughter's  inquiries,  for 
she  was  desirous  to  have  her  learn  as  much  as  pos 
sible  about  everything  she  saw  in  Europe. 

A  continuous  line  of  houses  leads  out  from  Naples 
to  Portici.  You  would  not  think  that  you  had 
gone  out  of  the  city,  if  you  did  not  find  that  the 
people  call  the  place  Portici,  instead  of  Naples. 


MAKY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  57 

Many  of  the  houses  have  their  names  painted  beside 
the  doors,  and  each  one  is  called  a  "  Villa,"  which 
is  the  Italian  for  "  country-seat."  Many  people  go 
out  from  Naples  in  summer  and  spend  a  few  weeks 
in  these  villas,  because  it  is  cooler  there  than  in  the 
thickly-settled  city. 

The  carriage  soon  drove  into  a  great  court,  which 
had  a  high  building  all  around  it.  At  the  doors 
were  soldiers,  who  walked  up  and  down  and  watched 
every  one  that  passed  in  and  out.  Mary  asked  her 
mother  what  the  building  was,  and  she  told  her 
that  it  was  the  king's  palace. 

"  Why,  mother,  his  palace  is  in  Naples,"  said 
Mary. 

"  That  is  only  one  of  his  palaces  ;  he  has  several," 
replied  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  I  should  think  he  would  never  feel  at  home  in 
any  of  them,  mamma.  I  am  sure  I  should  not  like 
so  many  homes." 

"He  probably  is  not  very  happy* my  dear,"  re 
plied  Mrs.  Brown,  "  for  the  people  of  this  country 
dislike  him  because  he  is  tyrannical,  and  no  king  is 
happy  when  his  people  do  not  love  him." 

"Why,  mamma,  we  are  going  out  of  the  palace 


58  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

again  !"  exclaimed  Mary.  "  The  street  goes  right 
through  it.  How  funny  I" 

"It  does  seem  singular.  But  you  know,  Mary, 
that  in  European  cities  the  streets  often  pass  under 
houses." 

"Almost  everything  seems  queer  in  Europe^ 
mamma.  The  houses  are  not  built  like  ours  ;  the 
people  do  not  dress  as  we  do,  they  eat  different 
things,  and  they  live  differently." 

"  True,  my  love.  There  are  many  who  dress  as 
we  do  ;  all  the  wealthier  people  do  ;  but  the  coun 
try  people  and  the  poorer  classes  wear  costumes 
that  have  been  worn  in  the  same  country  for  cen 
turies." 

"See,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "do  look  at  those 
queer  glass  bottles  and  earthen  pots." 

"  Such  glass  bottles,  or  flasks,  are  in  common  use 
here  for  water,  and  milk,  and  wine,  and  when  Pom 
peii  was  discovered,  Mary,  bottles  of  exactly  the 
same  shape  were  found  buried  there." 

"How  strange,  mamma." 

"  The  people  who  lived  in  those  old  times,  used, 
for  the  most  part,  the  same  sort  of  dishes  that  we 
do  now,  only  they  were  made  of  earthen-ware  or 


MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  59 

glass.  They  seem  to  have  known  little  about  finer 
kinds  of  crockery.  No  china  dishes  have  been 
found." 

"  Were  many  dishes  found,  mamma  ?" 

"  A  great  many,  my  child  ;  cups,  bottles,  plates, 
baking-dishes,  bowls,  strainers  and  other  things  which 
I  cannot  think  of  now." 

"  Are  they  preserved,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  are  in  the  Museo  Borbonico.  I  hope  we 
shall  see  them  some  day." 

"  Can  you  not  think  of  something  else  they  found  ?" 

"They  found  great  wine  jugs  of  earthenware. 
These  jugs  had  a  short  neck,  with  a  handle  on  each 
side  of  it,  and  the  bottom,  instead  of  being  flat,  was 
pointed  just  like  a  sharpened  pencil." 

"  I  should  not  think  the  jugs  would  stand  up," 
said  Mary. 

"The  sharp  end,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  "was 
thrust  into  the  sand,  and  that  held  them  up.  When 
the  wine  was  going  to  be  used,  water  was  poured  on 
the  sand,  and  that  cooled  the  wine." 

"  Did  they  drink  a  great  deal  of  wine  ?"  asked 
Mary. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  and  they  used  it  as 


60  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII, 

an  offering  to  their  gods.  "When  they  sat  down  to 
their  meals,  they  poured  out  a  little  wine  on  the 
ground  as  a  libation." 

"  What  is  a  '  libation  ?'  "  asked  Mary. 

"An  offering,  my  love.  This  libation  was  con 
sidered  a  token  of  respect  to  the  gods,  and  it  was 
thought  they  would  look  with  favor  upon  those  who 
offered  it." 

Conversing  in  this  way,  Mrs.  Brown  and  her 
daughter  drove  on  through  Resina  and  Torre  del 
Greco.  Beyond,  for  a  space,  there  were  but  few 
houses  along  the  road.  To  their  left,  they  saw 
plainly  the  smoky  peak  of  Vesuvius. 

"  Oh,  mamma,  there  is  the  great  hill,"  said  Mary, 
laughing,  "  I  really  cannot  make  up  my  mind  to  call 
it  a  mountain." 

"  You  will  call  it  a  mountain,"  replied  her  mother, 
also  laughing,  "  when  you  come  to  ascend  it." 

"  Is  it  very  hard  to  go  up  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  I  believe  it  is,  my  child.  Does  it  not  look  as 
though  you  could  take  a  good  many  steps  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Mary,  thoughtfully  ;  "  but  must  we 
walk  up  r 


MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  61 

"  Not  all  the  way,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  we 
can  go  011  horseback  up  to  the  Hermitage,  that 
small  house  you  see  half  way  up  the  mountain. 
Beyond  that,  we  must  walk  or  be  carried  by 
men." 

"Why?  mamma." 

"  Because  the  rest  of  the  mountain,  that  is,  the 
cone,  is  very  steep.  Horses  or  donkeys  could  not 
go  up  it." 

"  I  am  glad,  mamma  !" 

"Why?  Mary." 

"  Oh,  I  shall  be  so  proud  to  say  I  have  walked 
i 

up  Vesuvius.  It  will  seem  odd,  when  I  go  home 
and  go  to  school,  to  study  geography  again,  and 
learn  about  Vesuvius.  I  shall  know  so  much  about 
it  already,  and  I  shall  tell  the  other  girls  about  it, 
and  about  Pompeii  too.  How  nice  that  will  be  at 
lunch  time." 

"  Datemi  qualche  com,  datmi  quaV  cosa .'"  cried  a 
voice  beside  the  wagon.  It  came  from  a  little  girl, 
who  was  running  along  trying  to  keep  up  with  the 
vehicle.  "  Sono  povera  ;  morta  di  fame  /  signorina, 
signorina,  quaP  cosa  ;"  and  she  moved  her  hand  fre 
quently  and  rapidly  to  her  mouth. 
6 


62  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

"  "What  does  she  say  ?"  asked  Mary,  "  I  cannot 
understand  her." 

"  She  says,"  replied  her  mother,  "  give  me  some 
thing  ;  I  am  dying  of  hunger  ;  my  little  lady,  give 
me  something." 

"  May  I  give  her  some  money  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  If  you  wish,  my  dear,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  and 
she  handed  Mary  a  small  coin. 

The  little  girl  still  ran  along,  and  held  on  by  one 
hand  to  the  carriage.  When  she  saw  the  coin  in 
Mary's  hand,  her  face  became  very  eager,  and  she 
called  out  louder  than  before  : 

"  Eccellen\  morla  difame,  Ecccttcn',  Eccellen'." 

Mary  dropped  the  coin  to  her.  It  missed  her 
hand  and  fell  upon  the  road.  The  child  called  out, 
"  grazia,;  grazia,  Excelled,"  and  stooped  to  hunt  it 
up  in  the  dirt.  Having  found  it,  she  ran  off  con 
tented. 

"  Why,"  said  Mary,  "  she  said  '  thank  you,  Excel 
lency.'  How  cousin  Elizabeth  would  laugh  if  she 
could  hear  her  call  me  '  Excellency.'  " 

"  '  Your  Excellence,  is  a  common  form  of  address 
with  beggars  in  Italy.  There  comes  another.  It  is 
a  poor,  blind  man,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 


MAKY.BROWX   AT   POMPEH.  63 

"  May  I  give  him  something,  too  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"Yes,  my  daughter,"  answered  Mrs.  Brown,  "  and 
then  we  must  not  give  to  any  more.  There  are  so 
many  beggars  in  Italy,  that  we  cannot  think  of  help 
ing  all." 

The  blind  man  came  rapidly  up  to  them.  He  was 
led  by  a  little  boy,  and  both  of  them  cried  out, 
although  they  were  almost  breathless  with  run 
ning  : 

"  Mario  di  fame ;  quaP  cosa  per  il  povero  deco, 
signora,  signorina,  morto  difame." 

Mary  gave  them  a  piece  of  money,  and  they 
turned  away. 

"  Did  not  they  say,  mamma,  that  they  were 
dying  with  hunger  ?"  asked  Mary,  earnestly. 

"  They  did,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown. 

"Well,"  said  Mary,  "this  time,  it  could  not  be 
true,  for  the  boy  had  a  large  piece  of  bread  in  his 
hand." 

Mary  sat  thoughtful  awhile.  At  last  she  said, 
"  There  is  a  piece  of  bread  in  our  satchel  ;  may  I 
give  it  to  the  next  beggar  who  says  he  is  dying  of 
hunger  ?" 

"Certainly,"   answered  her  mother,   and    Mary 


64  MABY   BKOWN   AT   POMPEII. 

took  the  bread  from  the  bag.  She  did  not  wait 
long  for  a  chance  to  give  it  away.  A  boy  came 
running  after  them,  crying  out  as  the  others  had 
done.  She  threw  him  the  piece  of  bread.  He 
caught  it — made  a  face  at  Mary,  and  spitefully 
threw  the  bread  after  the  carriage." 

"  Oh,  mother,"  said  Mary,  "  how  can  he  be  so 
naughty  ?  He  says  he  is  dying  of  hunger,  and  yet 
he  throws  away  good  bread." 

They  now  entered  another  little  village,  and,  driv 
ing  rapidly  through  it,  saw,  not  far  off,  a  long  bank 
of  earth. 

"  Pompeii  is  under  that  bank,  signora,"  said  the 
driver,  addressing  Mrs.  Brown,  and  pointing  with 
his  whip. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  her  eyes  sparkling 
with  pleasure,  "  we  have  really  got  to  the  city. 
How  delighted  I  am.  But  we  cannot  see  anything 
but  earth." 

"  Have  a  little  patience,  Mary,"  said  her  mother, 
slniling. 

"  In  a  few  minutes  the  carriage  stopped  at  the 
door  of  a  house,  and  Mrs.  Brown  and  her  daughter 
alighted. 


MAEY  .BKOWN  AT    PCMPEH.  65 

11  This  house,  Mary,"  said  her  mother,  "  is  partly 
built  of  one  of  the  old  houses  of  Pompeii,  and 
through  it  we  enter  the  city." 

Several  men  were  standing  at  the  door,  and  Mrs. 
Brown  told  her  daughter  that  they  were  guides,  who 
went  with  travellers  through  the  city  to  show  them 
the  way,  and  to  keep  them  from  stealing  or  injuring 
anything. 

"Many  people  would  like  to  have  something  from 
Pompeii,"  she  said  ;  "but  if  each  one  carried  away 
something,  in  a  few  years  the  houses  would  be 
greatly  defaced,  and  travellers  would  no.t  enjoy  com 
ing  here  nearly  so  much  as  they  do  now." 


66  MARY   BROWN  AT  POMPEII. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  guide  led  Mrs.  Brown  and  her  daughter, 
through  several  doorways,  into  a  large  square 
enclosure,  surrounded  by  columns.  The  columns 
looked  old,  and  they  were  partly  broken,  but  it  was 
easy  to  see  that  the  lower  part  of  them  had  once 
been  of  a  bright  red,  while  the  upper  part  was  of  a 
bright  yellow. 

"  What  queer  columns,  mamma  !"  said  Mary  ; 
"are  they  painted?" 

"  Yes,"  answered  Mrs.  Brown.  "  The  people  of 
Pompeii  were  fond  of  bright  colors,  and  you  will  see 
a  great  many  such  columns  in  different  parts  of 
the  city.  You  will  also  find  the  outside  of  the 
houses  covered  with  red  stucco.  But  look  at  this 
place  we  are  in,  my  child.  It  was  once  the  barracks 
for  soldiers  to  live  in." 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   POMPEII.  67 

"  Oh,"  cried  Mary,  "  it  is  the  one  you  told  me  of, 
mamma,  where  they  found  the  skeletons  of  the  men, 
and  women,  and  children,  and  the  weapons,  and  the 
pieces  of  cloth,  and  the  golden  ornaments.  And 
there  was  an  up-stairs  to  it,  was  there  not  ?" 

"  Yes,  my  child.  Come  into  this  little  room  ;" 
and  Mrs.  Brown  stepped  into  a  small  apartment. 

I  must  here  tell  my  young  readers,  that  all 
around  the  court,  which  is  in  the  middle  of  the  bar 
racks,  there  are  small  rooms,  supposed  to  have  been 
the  bed-rooms  of  the  soldiers. 

Mrs.  Brown  pointed  to  a  piece  of  furniture  in  one 
of  the  rooms,  and  asked  Mary  what  she  thought  it 
was. 

"  I  am  sure  I  cannot  imagine,"  answered  Mary, 
after  having  attentively  examined  it. 

"  It  was  an  instrument  of  punishment,"  said  her 
mother.  "  It  is  what  we  call  '  stocks/  and  the  same 
kind  of  thing  is  used  at  the  present  day.  The  feet 
of  the  man  who  was  considered  deserving  of  this 
punishment,  were  thrust  between  the  little  partitions 
you  see  here,  and  then  the  rod  at  the  end  was  run 
through  these  holes  in  the  partition  and  held  his  feet 
fast." 


68  MARY  BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

•'  And  how  long  was  he  left  with  his  feet  in  the 
stocks  ?"  asked  Mary,  anxiously. 

"That  1  cannot  tell,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  "  more 
or  less  time,  according  to  the  crime  he  had  com 
mitted.  When  these  barracks  were  uncovered,  two 
skeletons  were  sitting  here  with  their  feet  in  the 
stocks." 

"  In  these  very  stocks,  mamma  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  Not  in  these,"  answered  Mrs.  Brown,  "  for  these 
are  of  wood.  The  skeletons  were  found  in  this 
little  room,  with  their  feet  in  stocks  made  of  iron, 
and  we  shall  see  the  original  stocks  in  the  museum 
at  Naples  ?" 

"  And  are  the  skeletons'  feet  in  them  still  ?" 
asked  Mary. 

"  No,  my  dear." 

"  Why  did  they  not  leave  the  things  all  here  ?" 
said  Mary. 

"  They  feared  that  another  eruption  might  cover 
the  city  again,  and  they  also  feared  that  the  weather 
would  injure  them,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  "  for  many 
of  them  are  very  easily  spoiled.  In  the  museum, 
they  are  kept  with  the  greatest  care.  They  are 
old,  very  old,  my  dear,  nearly  two  thousand  years 


MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  69 

old.  This  room,"  continued  Mrs.  Brown,  "was  the 
prison  ;  that  one  is  the  room  where  they  ate.  Here 
is  the  stable,  in  which  was  found  the  skeleton  of  a 
horse,  as  well  as  some  of  his  harness.  In  the  upper 
rooms  were  skeletons,  and  also  two  beautiful  golden 
bracelets,  with  emeralds  in  them  ;  ear-rings,  too, 
and  hair-pins^  and  chests  full  of  clothes  were  found. 
But  we  must  not  linger  long  here,  for  there  are  so 
many  things  to  see  that  we  cannot  stay  as  long  as 
we  might  like  in  each  house." 

They  left  the  barracks  and  walked  a  little  way,  to 
another  ruined  building.  It  was  a  half-circle  in 
shape,  and  round  the  inside  were  rows  of  seats 
from  the  bottom  to  the  top.  In  front  of  tliese  seats 
was  a  long  platform,  behind  which  were  small 
rooms. 

"  What  do  you  think  this  is,  Mary  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brown. 

"  It  looks- like  a  lecture  room,  mamma." 

"  It  is  a  theatre,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  and  it  was  so 
situated  that  the  spectators  could  look  out  on  the 
Bay  while  they  sat  on  the  seats." 

"But,  mamma,  how  could  they  see  when  they 
were  in  "the  house  ?" 


70  MARY   BKOWN   AT   POMPEII. 

"It  had  no  roof,  my  child.  When  the  sun 
was  hot,  an  awning  of  cloth  was  drawn  over  the 
top.  The  walls,  and  seats,  and  stairs  were  all 
covered  with  beautiful  white  marble." 

"  It  looks  just  like  a  ruin,  mamma,"  said  Mary, 
"  and  yet  we  can  sit  down  here,  if  we  choose,  and 
imagine  that  we  are  Pompeians.  I  think  it  would 
have  looked  like  a  ruin  to  me  when  it  was  new,  if  it 
had  no  roof." 

"  That  is  only  because  you  are  not  accustomed  to 
such  buildings,"  replied  her  mother.  "  There  is, 
however,  another  little  theatre  near  here,  which  has 
a  roof." 

They  left  the  theatre  and  went  up  a  flight  of 
steps  which  led  to  some  elevated  ground,  from 
which  they  could  look  down  upon  the  two  theatres. 

"Mamma,"  said  Mary,  "it  is  very  much  like  look 
ing  out  of  our  windows  at  home  into  our  neighbors' 
gardens.  The  walls  of  the  buildings  stand  for  the 
fences,  and  as  their  roofs  are  gone,  the  houses  look 
more  like  open  yards  than  anything  else.  When  I 
get  home,  I  shall  tell  the  girls  at  school  how  ttey 
looked.  And  I  can  tell  you  what  else  these  ruined 
houses  look  like,  mamma  ;  like  houses  partly 


MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  71 

built  and  left  a  good  while,  till  they  have  grown 
old." 

They  passed  into  another  enclosure,  which  the 
gnide  said  was  a  temple  of  Isis. 

"  Who  was  Isis  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  Isis  was,  an  Egyptian  goddess,  my  love,"  replied 
her  mother. 

"  Why,  then,  did  they  have  a  temple  here,  mam 
ma  ?  The  Pompeians  were  not  Egyptians." 

"  No,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  but  the  worship 
of  foreign  gods  and  goddesses  was  common  in  Italy. 
Most  of  their  deities  were  of  Greek  origin,  as  you 
will  learn  by  and  by." 

Mary  could  not  understand  the  whole  arrange 
ment  of  the  temple,  but  her  mother  showed  her  the 
large  altar,  with  a  gutter  at  one  side,  by  means  of 
which  the  blood  of  the  victim  offered  on  the  altar 
ran  off  into  a  basin  placed  below.  Around  the  prin 
cipal  altar  were  many  smaller  ones,  placed  at  differ 
ent  distances  about  the  court.  She  saw,  also,  the 
lofty  platform  on  which  the  statue  of  Isis  used  to 
stand,  and  she  went  up  the  steps  that  led  to  it. 
Her  mother  showed  her,  at  the  top,  the  little  room 
where  the  priests  used  to  hide  when  the  goddess 


72  MARY    BROWN    AT   POMPEII. 

was  going  to  utter  an  oracle.  Mrs.  Brown  told  her 
daughter  that  the  people  who  were  gathered  in  the 
temple  to  hear  what  the  goddess  had  to  say, 
thought  that  the  statue  itself  spoke,  but  in  reality 
the  priests  spoke  for  it." 

"  Then  the  priests  deceived  the  people,  mamma," 
said  Mary. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  and  it  is  remark 
able  that  this  little  nook,  in  which  the  priests  of  Isis 
hid  in  order  to  deceive  the  people,  should  have 
been  discovered  so  many  hundred  years  after  it  was 
used,  while  at  the  time  that  the  priests  deluded 
the  people,  its  existence  was  not  known  at  all. 
There  is  in  the  Museum  a  statue  of  a  goddess  with 
a  hole  between  her  shoulders,  to  which  the  priest, 
standing  behind  her,  applied  his  mouth,  and  made 
the  sound  pass  through  her  chest  and  come  out  at 
her  lips.  Perhaps  he  used  a  tube,  which  communi 
cated  with  this  aperture,  and  so  spoke  from  a  dis 
tance.  Look  down  this  hole  in  the  ground,  Mary. 
Do  you  see  the  water  at  the  bottom  ?  It  is  a  cis 
tern.  Just  think  I  It  was  used  centuries  ago  by 
the  priests  of  Isis,  when  they  offered  sacrifices  to 
their  goddess." 


MAKY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  73 

From  this  temple  they  passed  into  a  long  street, 
paved  with  stones.  Along  its  sides  were  houses, 
and  Mrs.  Brown  told  Mary  that  they  had  been 
shops. 

"  Many  of  them  were  jewelers'  shops,"  she  said, 
"  and  this  street  is  called  the  Street  of  Abundance. 
It  receives  it  name  from  a  fountain  that  stands  in  it, 
for  a  little  stone  figure  of  the  goddess  of  Plenty 
was  found  on  the  fountain." 

Mary  was  interested  in  looking  at  the  shops. 
They  were  empty,  their  roofs  were  gone,  but  the 
paint  on  the  walls  'was  still  bright,  though  in  many 
places  the  stucco  was  very  much  broken.  Her 
mother  called  her  attention  to  some  names  painted 
on  the  outside  of  the  houses.  Of  course  she  could 
not  read  them,  for  they  were  in  a  language  she 
did  not  understand,  but  Mrs.  Brown  told  her  that 
they  were  the  names  of  the  people  who  once  kept 
the  shops.  Sometimes  it  looked  as  if  one  name  had 
been  painted  over  another,  probably  because  one 
person  had  moved  out  of  the  shop  and  another  had 
moved  in.  In  one  house  she  saw  a  little  painting  of 
a  monkey  playing  on  a  pipe. 

The  guide  said  that  a  skeleton  was  dug  out 
T 


74:  MAHY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

in  this  street,  with  a  puise  full  of  gold  coin  in  his 
hand.  He  also  took  them  into  a  house,  called  the 
"  House  of  the  Physician,"  because  a  great  many 
pills  and  surgical  instruments  were  discovered  in  it. 

I  cannot  tell  you  about  all  the  houses  that  Mary 
went  into,  but  all  of  them  interested  her  very  much. 
She  never  was  tired  of  admiring  the  brightly  painted 
walls,  and  she  kept  saying  what  a  pity  it  was  that 
so  many  pieces  were  broken  out  of  them.  She  was 
delighted  to  see  that  the  outsides  of  the  houses  were 
brightly  painted  too. 

"Oh,  mamma  1"  she  exclaimed,  " I  should  have 
liked  to  live  in  Pompeii.  The  walls  are  so  beautiful. 
They  look  as  if  they  had  just  been  painted  ;  and  as 
for  the  floors,  they  are  the  handsomest  I  ever  saw. 
I  did  not  think  there  were  such  wonderful  things 
anywhere  out  of  fairy  land." 

What  Mary  so  greatly  admired  in  the  floors,  was 
the  pavement  of  mosaic.  This  mosaic  is  made  up  of 
a  great  many  little  square  pieces  of  marble,  some 
black,  some  white,  some  red,  yellow,  or  blue.  These 
pieces  are  arranged  in  such  a  way  that  they  form 
birds,  or  fishes,  or  other  animals  ;  sometimes  they 
represent  men  fighting  or  fishing.  Sometimes  they 


MAKY   BROWN    AT   POMPEII.  75 

are  arranged  in  squares,  or  lines,  without  represent 
ing  animals  or  people  at  all.  At  Pompeii,  these  beau 
tiful  mosaics  are  kept  covered  with  sand,  and  when 
visitors  come  to  see  the  city  the  sand  is  swept  off. 
They  are  kept  covered  because  the  houses  are  with 
out  roofs,  for  the  roofs  were  burnt  off  or  fell  in 
when  the  city  was  destroyed,  and  the  rain  falling 
upon  the  pretty  mosaics  would  perhaps  spoil  them 
by  loosening  the  stones. 

Mrs.  Brown  showed  her  daughter  the  Forum,  or 
great  public  square,  where  business  was  transacted. 
Around  it  were  ranged  blocks  of  marble,  on  which 
statues  once  stood.  A  temple,  dedicated  to  Jupiter, 
and  one  to  Venus,  opened  on  this  square.  Some  of 
the  columns  which  surrounded  the  Forum  were 
new,  but  unfinished  ;  and  Mrs.  Brown  told  Mary 
that  the  old  ones  had  probably  been  thrown  down 
and  broken  by  the  earthquakes  which  occurred  a  few 
years  before  the  eruption,  and  that  the  workmen 
had  not  finished  the  new  ones,  when  the  lava  caine 
and  buried  the  city. 

The  streets  through  which  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary 
had  already  passed,  were  without  sidewalks.  This 
is  also  the  case  in  many  of  the  streets  of  Naples,  and 


76  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

one  must  always  be  on  the  look-out,  when  walking 
in  them,  not  to  be  run  over  by  the  little  one-horse 
wagons  which  are  driven  through  the  city  with 
great  rapidity. 

Mary  and  her  mother  next  entered  a  street  which 
had  sidewalks  similiar  to  those  our  streets  have.  It 
was  called  the  Street  of  Fortune.  The  guide  showed 
them  a  house  where  a  skeleton  was  discovered  in 
the  attitude  of  getting  out  of  a  window.  It  had  in 
its  hand  a  purse  full  of  money  and  ornaments. 

"  How  many  skeletons  had  purses  full  of  gold  I" 
said  Mary. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "when  the  inhabi 
tants  found  that  they  must  leave  the  city,  each  one, 
of  course,  tried  to  take  his  treasures  with  him. 
Some,  probably,  succeeded  in  doing  so,  others  died 
with  their  treasures  in  their  hands." 

11  And  their  money  lay  here  almost  two  thousand 
years,"  said  Mary,  "  and  other  people  got  it  at 
last." 

"  Yes,  my  love,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  the  spirits 
that  once  lived  in  the  skeletons  went  away,  but  they 
could  not  take  with  them  the  gold  they  had  thought 
so  much  of.  It  makes  us  think  about  what  the 


MARY   BEOWN   AT   POMPEII.  77 

Bible  says  of  laying  up  our  treasure  in  Heaven, 
which  means,  my  dear,  that  it  is  far  better  and 
wiser  to  love  God,  and  live  in  a  way  that  is  pleas 
ing  to  Him,  than  to  be  rich  in  money  and  in  the 
things  of  this  world." 

They  now  went  into  a  large  building,  which  was 
called  a  bath. 

"  The  ancients,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  were  very 
fond  of  bathing,  and  some  of  the  most  luxurious 
among  them  bathed  three  times  every  day.  The 
government  built  public  bathing  houses  for  the  peo 
ple,  and  made  them  very  handsome.  Follow  me, 
and  I  will  tell  you  what  the  different  rooms  were 
used  for.  In  this  room  are  holes  in  the  walls,  in 
which  pegs  were  once  put  to  hang  the  clothes  of  the 
bathers  upon.  In  this  next  room  are  shelves  where 
pots  of  ointment  stood,  for  the  bathers  used  to  rub 
their  bodies  all  over  with  ointment  before  they  went 
into  the  water.  In  this  next  room  was  the  warm 
bath,  and  you  see,  under  the  floor,  the  furnace  fof 
heating  it.  In  the  room  beyond,  we  shall  see  a 
round  basin  of  marble,  which  was  for  cold  baths." 

"  Why,  the  pavement  heie,  too,"  said  Mary, 
"  was  of  marble  and  mosaic  work  ;  and  see  what 
1* 


78  MAKY    BKOWN   AT   POMPEII. 

beautiful  ceilings  ;  see,  mamma,  the  ceilings  are  per 
fect  yet.  See  the  paintings  of  dolphins,  and  lyres, 
and  pretty  vines.  How  beautiful  it  all  must  have 
been  before  Pompeii  was  overthrown.  How  I  wish 
I  could  have  looked  in  here  then." 

"  In  these  rooms  were  found  some  of  the  instru 
ments  the  ancients  employed  to  cleanse  the  skin. 
One  curious  instrument  that  is  not  used  among  us, 
I  will  mention.  It  is  called  the  strigil.  It  is  in 
shape  something  like  a  knife.  The  edges,  however, 
are  thick  and  dull,  and  it  was  used  to  scrape  the 
skin,  and  take  off  the  little  rolls  of  the  external 
skin,  such  ^s  you  have  noticed  on  your  arms  when 
you  have  rubbed  them  hard  after  bathing." 

"  I  should  like  to  see  a  strigil.  Is  there  one  here 
now,  mamma  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  There  is  none  here,"  replied  her  mother,  "but 
we  shall  see  some  in  the  great  Museum.  And  now 
we  must  go  on,  for  there  is  still  a  great  deal  to  be 
seen." 

The  next  house  they  entered  was  the  finest  in 
Pompeii.  It  is  called  the  House  of  the  Faun,  be 
cause  a  beautiful  little  bronze  statue  of  a  dancing 
faun  was  discovered  in  it. 


MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  79 

"And  shall  we  see  the  little  statue?"  asked 
Mary. 

"Yes,  in  the  Museum  m  Naples,"  replied  her 
mother. 
."  Has  it  long  horns,  mamma,  like  a  deer  ?" 

"  No,  my,  child,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  "  the  faun 
was  not  a  deer  at  all.  It  was  a  god  who  lived 
in  'the  woods.  The  name  is  spelled  f-a-u-n,  not 
f-a-w-n." 

"  I  will  remember  that,"  said  Mary,  laughing, 
"  for  I  do  not  like  to  make  such  mistakes." 

"You  must  not  mind  making  mistakes,"  replied 
her  mother.  "  If  you  learn  something  every  day, 
by  and  by  you  will  not  make  so  many  ;  but  you 
must  always  ask  questions  about  things  when  you 
do  not  understand  them  In  this  house,  too,  was 
found,  my  dear  Mary,  a  very  large  piece  of  mosaic 
work,  forming  the  largest  picture  in  mosaic  that 
was  discovered  in  Pompeii.  It  represents  a  battle, 
and  is  now  in  the  Museum." 

"  Oh,  that  Museum  !"  exclaimed  Mary.  "  It 
seems  to  me  that  everything  is  in  the  Museum." 

Her  mother  smiled,  and  said,  "  The  Museum  is 
full  of  wonderful  things.  You  will  see  there  silver 


80  MAEY    BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

stew-pans  found  in  this  very  house,  as  well  as 
jewelry,  and  a  great  many  other  things  that  were 
discovered  on  this  spot ;  for  this  house  had  in  it 
more  beautiful  things  than  any  other." 

"Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "I  feel  almost  im 
patient  to  go  away  from  here  to  see  the  Museum." 

"  And,"  answered  her  mother,  "  when  you  are  in 
the  Museum,  you  will  wish  you  were  here  again,  to 
see  the  spots  where  the  things  were  found." 

"  I  suppose  I  shall,"  said  Mary,  laughing  in  reply 
to  her  mother's  smile,  and  they  went  on  their 
way. 

In  the  curb-stone  of  the  street,  the  guide  pointed 
out  to  them  some  small  holes,  which  he  said  were  used 
instead  of  horse-posts  to  fasten  the  horses  to,  and 
he  explained  to  Mary  how  the  bridle  was  passed 
through  the  holes  and  tied.  They  saw  also,  at  the 
corners  of  the  street,  three  great  flat  stones  laid 
across  between  the  sidewalks  ;  and  the  guide  told 
Mary  that  they  answered  the  same  purpose  as  step 
ping-stones  in  a  brook,  that  they  were  intended  for 
people  to  cross  the  street  on.  Mary  ran  across  on 
them  to  the  opposite  sidewalk,  and  then  returning, 
said  to  her  mother  : 


MAKY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  81 

"  How  nice  it  would  be  to  have  such  stones  in 
Broadway  !  We  should  not  get  our  shoes  muddy." 

"  But  how,"  asked  her  mother,  u  could  the  omni 
buses  and  carts,  and  carriages  pass  ?" 

"  Why,"  said  Mary,  thoughtfully,  "  I  do  not  know. 
Were  there  no  carriages  in  Pompeii  ?"  she  asked, 
turning  towards  the  guide. 

"  There  were  chariots,"  he  replied  ;  "  and  if  you 
will  look  between  these  stepping-stones,  you  will  see 
the  deep  ruts  made  in  the  pavement  by  the  wheels. 
You  see,  Miss,  the  wheels  passed  between  the 
stones." 

"  And,"  asked  Mary,  "  did  the  horse  go  right 
over  the  middle  stone  ?" 

"  I  suppose  he  did,  Miss,"  answered  the  guide,  "  I 
don't  see  that  there  was  any  other  place  for  him  to 
go." 

Mary  called  her  mother's  attention  to  a  cart 
drawn  by  oxen,  which  was  crossing  the  street,  not  a 
great  way  off.  In  the  cart  was  earth  that  had 
been  taken  from  some  building  which  was  being 
excavated. 

11  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  she,  "  we  can  almost 
imagine  that  we  are  among  the  old  Pompeians, 


82  MAKT   BKOWX   AT   POMPEII. 

when  we  see  a  cart  rolling  through  the  street.  It 
seems  as  if  people  were  busy  here,  as  they  used  to 
be.  Does  it  not  ?" 

"  It  does,  Mary,"  answered  her  mother,  "  and  it 
would  be  pleasant  to  spend  several  hours  sitting  in 
one  of  these  door-ways,  dreaming  and  talking  about 
the  people  who  once  lived  in  the  houses  around  us, 
and  of  the  children  who  once  played  on  these  side 
walks.  "VVe  could  imagine  the  sound  of  the  work 
men's  carts  to  be  the  noise  of  the  vehicles  of  old 
Pompeii,  and  when  visitors  went  by,  we  could 
imagine  them  to  be  strangers  on  a  visit  to  the  city 
when  it  was  in  its  prime." 

"  Could  we  not  imagine  them  to  be  Pompeians, 
mamma  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  No,  my  dear,"  answered  her  mother,  "  their  cos 
tume  is  too  different.  In  the  days  before  Pompeii 
was  buried,  no  nation  in  the  world  dressetj  as  we  do. 
But  we  could  make  believe,  as  children  say,  that  they 
were  strangers  from  some  distant  and  unknown  land." 

"  The  land  we  come  from,  mamma,"  said  Mary, 
"was  an  unknown  land  to  the  Pompeians.  If  they 
could  wake  up  and  see  us  here  I  wonde^  what  they 
would  think  of  us." 


MAKY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII.  83 

"  America  was  not  dreamed  of  until  fourteen  hua- 
di'ed  years  after  Pompeii  was  buried,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown. 

"  How  hard  it  is  to  believe  that,"  said  Mary. 

It  would  tire  my  young  readers  to  tell  them  about 
all  the  houses  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  visited,  so  I 
shall  pick  out  one  more  of  the  most  interesting.  It 
is  called  the  "  House  of  the  Tragic  Poet,"  because 
there  was  on  one  of  its  walls  a  picture  of  a  man 
reading  from  a  scroll,  and  he  was  supposed  to  be  a 
poet.  As  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  entered  the  large 
central  hall,  the  former  said  : 

"  Now,  my  daughter,  can  you  tell  me  the  name  of 
the  room  in  which  we  stand  ?" 

"Oh,"  replied  Mary,  "  it  is  at — ,  I  forget  mamma." 

"  It  is  the  atrium,  my  clear,"  said  her  mother. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Mary,  eagerly,  "and  this  basin 
in  the  pavement  is  the  impluvium,  into  which  the 
rain  fell  that  came  in  through  the  hole  in  the  roof. 
I  remembered  that  name,  did  I  not  ?  And  here," 
she  continued,  stepping  down  into  the  now  dry  im- 
pluvium,  "  here  are  little  snail  shells,  and  some  other 
very,  very  small  shells  of  a  different  kind.  How 
pretty  they  are.  May  I  take  some  home  ?" 


84  MART    BEOWN   AT   POMPEII. 

"  Yes,"  said  her  mother,  "  but  I  am  afraid  they 
will  break.  Perhaps,  however,  if  you  wrap  them 
up  very  carefully  in  your  handkerchief,  they  will  go 
safely  in  your  pocket." 

Mary  did  as  her  mother  suggested,  and  said  that 
it  would  be  so  pleasant  to  show  the  girls  at  school 
snail  shells  that  had  really  come  from  Pompeii. 

"  Do  you  see,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  how  the 
rooms  open  from  the  atrium  ?  These  doors  all 
around  us,  you  see,  lead  into  small  rooms." 

"  I  see,  mamma,"  replied  Mary,  "  and  how  prettily 
the  walls  are  painted.  They  are  all  covered  with 
stucco,  are  they  not?  and  then  the  stucco  is 
painted  ;"  and  she  went  to  the  wall  and  carefully 
examined  a  part  that  was  broken.  "  If  I  can  find 
a  piece  of  broken  stucco  on  the  ground,  may  I  pick 
it  up  ?"  she  asked. 

"  If  the  guide  will  allow  you  to  do  so,"  said  her 
mother. 

Mary  immediately  began  to  hunt  around  among 
the  fragments  of  mortar  that  had  fallen  from  the 
wall ;  at  last  she  found  a  beautiful  piece,  one  sur 
face  of  which  was  covered  with  bright  red  paint. 
She  showed  it  to  the  guide,  who  said  that  it  had 


MARY   BKOWN   AT   POMPEII.  85 

crumbled  from  the  wall  and  could  not  be  replaced, 
so  she  might  put  it  into  her  pocket,  which  she  did 
with  great  delight. 

"  My  dear,"  said  her  mother,  "  we  can  pass  from 
this  atrium  into  another  court,  which  was  entirely 
open  to  the  sky.  In  it  there  was  once  a  garden. 
This  court  was  called  a  peristyle,  and  the  most  private 
rooms  of  the  house  opened  on  it.  Many  of  the 
houses .  had  no  peristyle,  and  their  bedrooms  opened 
upon  the  atrium  ;  but  when  there  was  a  peristyle, 
the  bedrooms  usually  opened  upon  that.  You  must 
understand,  my  child,  that  these  houses  are  very 
interesting,  for  before  Pompeii  was  discovered  we 
knew  but  little  of  the  way  in  which  private  houses 
were  arranged  among  the  ancients." 

"  I  am  very  much  interested  in  everything,  mam 
ma;  but  I  am  afraid  that  I  cannot  remember  it  all," 
said  Mary. 

"  You  will  remember  a  great  deal,  my  dear,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown,  encouragingly,  "  and  when  you  read 
and  study,  you  will  constantly  recall  something  you 
thought  you  had  forgotten." 

"  I  hope  so,  I  am  sure,"  said  Mary  ;  "  it  would 
be  too  bad  to  see  so  much  and  forget  it  all  in  a  few 
8 


86"  MAKT   BROWN    AT   POMPEII. 

weeks  I  have  noticed  one  tiling  in  almost  all 
the  houses  of  Pompeii,  mamma,  which  I  think  is 
very  pretty." 

"What  is  it,  Mary?" 

"  That  on  the  wall,  around,  just  above  the  ground, 
there  are  almost  always  plants  and  little  shrubs 
and  flowers  painted,  just  as  if  they  grew  up  out  of 
the  ground." 

"  Yes,  my  dear,  they  look  very  much  as  plants 
would  look,  growing  along  the  base  of  the  wall  ; 
and  I  suppose  they  are  imitations  of  flowers  that 
grew  and  were  admired  in  Pompeii,  or  its  neighbor 
hood." 

As  they  left  the  house,  Mrs.  Brown  said  :  "  In  the 
house  we  are  leaving,  Mary,  there  was  found  a 
singular  mosaic.  It  represented  a  great  dog,  chained, 
and  at  its  feet  were  the  words,  '  cave  canem,'  which 
means,  '  Beware  of  the  Dog.'  The  dog  was  of 
course  intended  to  represent  a  watch-dog,,  which 
kept  guard  at  the  door  of  the  house,  for  the  mosaic 
was  in  the  pavement  close  by  the  door.  The  dog, 
as  well  as  a  great  many  beautiful  pictures  which 
made  this  house  ve^y  celebrated  when  it  was  first 
uncovered  has  been  Carried  away  to  Naples." 


MAEY   BKOWN    AT   POMPEII.  87 

"  And  put  into  the  Museum,  I  suppose,"  said  Mary> 
laughing  ;  "  everything  goes  into  that  Museum." 

"  Yes,"  answered  her  mother,  "  they  are  all  in 
the  Museum." 

Continuing  their  walk,  they  saw  a  baker's  shop, 
with  the  oven  where  he  baked  bread,  and  the 
great  stone  mills  in  which  he  ground  grain.  Mary 
picked  up  in  this  shop  another  piece  of  red  wall, 
which  she  put  into  her  pocket  with  the  other.  Then 
they  went  into  the  shops  where  wine  and  oil  were 
sold,  and  saw  the  great  jars  made  of  earthenware, 
in  which  the  wine  and  oil  were  kept  for  sale.  These 
jars  were  still  embedded  in  the  earth. 

Finally,  they  came  out  on  a  broad  street,  called 
the  Street  of  Tombs,  because  on  each  side  of  it 
there  are  graves  and  marble  monuments.  This 
street  leads  to  a  gate,  by  which  visitors  may  pass  in 
and  out  of  Pompeii.  It  was  one  of  the  entrances  to 
the  ancient  city,  and  the  ruins  of  a  large  inn  stand 
near  it,  in  which,  it  is  supposed,  strangers  just 
arrived  at  Pompeii  lodged. 

On  this  street,  just  before  they  left  the  city,  they 
went  up  a  flight  of  steps  into  a  large  house,  which 
Mrs.  Brown  said  was  once  the  house  of  Diomedes. 


88  MAEY    BEOWN    AT   POMPEII. 

"  In  it,"  said  she,  "  you  remember  there  were 
found  a  number  of  skeletons  of  people  who  had 
sought  refuge  in  the  cellar." 

They  went  down  into  this  cellar,  which  was  a 
very  long  apartment  with  an  arched  roof.  On  one 
side,  high  up  in  the  wall,  were  small  windows,  through 
which  the  ashes  that  destroyed  the  people  gathered 
there,  had  sifted.  Mrs.  Brown  pointed  out  to  Mary 
a  line  on  the  wall,  and  told  her  that  that  was  the 
height  to  which  the  ashes  reached. 

"Ob,  mamma,  it  is  far,  far  above  our  heads," 
said  Mary,  seriously. 

"  And  here,"  added  her  mother,  "  along  the  wall, 
are  jars  for  wine.  Look  into  them,  and  you  will  see 
that  they  are  full  of  black  earth.  It  is  the  ashes 
which  filled  the  cellar  when  the  city  and  the  people 
who  hid  here  were  all  buried  together." 

The  guide  showed  them  some  marks  on  the  wall 
near  the  door.  "  Here,"  said  he,  "  you  see  where 
the  people,  who  took  refuge  in  this  cellar,  leaned 
against  the  wall.  The  ashes  settled  all  around  them 
and  discolored  the  wall,  but  where  the  shoulders  of 
the  people  rested  the  wall  is  not  altered." 

Mary  felt  frightened  as  she  looked  at  these  fciarks 


MAEY   BKOWN   AT   POMPEII.  89 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  she  said,  in  a  whisper,  "  if  Vesuvius 
should  burst  out  now,  and  bury  us,  also,  in  this  vault  1" 

"  The  mountain  will  not  burst  out  without  giving 
some  warning,"  replied  her  mother,  quietly;  "and 
now  we  will  go  up  stairs  and  look  at  the  rooms." 
As  they  passed  up,  they  saw  in  the  garden  the  spot 
where  Diornedes  and  his  servant  were  discovered,  try 
ing  to  escape  by  the  garden  gate,  about  which  Mrs. 
Brown  had  told  Mary  in  their  conversation  at  the 
hotel. 

Up  stairs,  they  saw  a  large  number  of  rooms,  one 
of  which  was  a  ladies'  dressing-room,  and  in  it  was 
found  a  little  box  of  rouge. 

"  Ladies  had  vanity  in  old  times  as  well  as  now- 
a-days,  signora,"  said  the  guide,  addressing  Mrs. 
Brown  ;  "  indeed,  I  think  people  were  pretty  much 
the  same  then  as  now." 

"Were  there  any  Christians  in  Pompeii,  mam 
ma  ?"  asked  Mary,  thoughtfully. 

"We  do  not  know,  Mary;  our  Saviour  died  forty- 
six  years  before  Pompeii  was  destroyed,  and  it  is 
possible  that  some  of  his  followers  may  have  been  in 
the  city  at  the  time  of  its  destruction,  but  we  know 
nothing  about  it." 


90  MARY   BROWN   AT   POMPEII. 

Besides  the  spots  I  have  mentioned,  Mrs.  Brown 
and  Mary  went  to  the  amphitheatre,  which  was  still 
very  perfect.  Mary  ran  up  the  steps,  and  sat  down 
on  the  seats,  and  tried  to  think  that  she  was  wait 
ing,  with  a  great  crowd  of  people,  to  see  the  wild 
beasts  come  into  the  arena  and  fight  together. 

"  When  do  you  suppose  the  last  show  took  place 
here  ?"  she  asked  her  mother. 

"  It  is  said,"  answered  Mrs.  Brown,  "  that  the 
people  were  assembled  in  this  amphitheatre  when 
the  strange  eruption  from  the  mountain  began." 

"  That  was  a  greater  show  than  they  had  expected 
to  see,  when  they  left  their  houses  to  come  here. 
How  frightened  they  must  have  been." 

Mary  picked  a  few  leaves  from  the  plants  which 
grew  on  the  walls  of  the  amphitheatre,  and  laid 
them  in  a  little  book  she  had  with  her.  "  It  will 
seem  so  strange  to  me  when  I  get  home,  to  look  at 
these  little  leaves  and  think  that  I  really  picked 
them  in  Pompeii.  I  shall  hardly  believe  it,"  she 
said. 

By  this  time,  Mary  and  her  mother  were  very 
tired,  and  I  am  afraid  my  readers  are  also.  They 
were  glad  to  say  good-bye  to  Pompeii,  and  though 


MARY   BKOWN   AT   POMPEII.  91 

they  left  the  city  by  the  Street  of  Tombs,  which  was 
far  from  where  they  had  entered,  they  found  their 
driver  waiting  for  them.  He  had  driven  round  to 
this  gate  from  the  one  where  they  had  left  him. 

The  sky  had  become  cloudy,  and  although  they 
drove  rapidly,  large  drops  of  rain  fell  before  they 
came  into  Naples. 

"  There  !"  said  Mary,  as  she  drew  her  shawl  up 
over  her  shoulders,  "  a  large  drop  of  rain  has  hit 
me  on  my  nose  ;  and  see  how  fast  the  rain  begins  to 
fall !  It  is  just  as  you  said,  mamma  :  a  bright  and 
sunshiny  morning,  has  turned  into  a  dark  and  dis 
mal  evening." 


92  MAEY  BEOWN  AT   VESUVIUS. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

WE  left  Mary  and  her  mother  to  come  into 
Naples  in  the  rain.  No  sooner  had  they  reached 
the  hotel,  than  a  heavy  shower  drove  everybody 
within  doors.  Nor  did  the  rain  cease  that  night. 
The  next  day,  and  the  day  after,  it  rained,  but 
finally  a  beautiful  sunset  gave  promise  of  a  pleasant 
morrow. 

When  Mary  looked  out  of  the  window,  early  in 
the  morning,  she  clapped  her  hands.  "  Where  shall 
we  go  to-day,  mamma,  where  shall  we  go  to-day  ?" 
she  exclaimed.  "  The  sun  is  coming  up,  and  the  sky 
is  all  pink  and  gold.  Oh,  mamma,  such  a  lovely 
sunrise  1"  and  while  Mary  dressed,  she  ran  every 
minute  to  the  window  to  look  out  at  the  sky,  and 
to  exclaim  how  beautiful  it  was.  And  I  hope,  if 
any  of  my  young  readers  ever  go  to  Naples,  they 
will  remember  to  get  up  in  time  to  see  the  sun  rise, 


MARY   BKOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  93 

for  it  is  a  glorious  sight.  Nor  must  they  forget  to 
walk  or  drive  along  the  Bay  in  the  afternoon,  for 
the  sunsets  are  very  different  from  sunsets  in  our 
country.  The  sky  and  the  mountains  are  more  rosy; 
the  smoke  from  Vesuvius  makes  a  soft  haze  along 
the  horizon,  and  this  haze  changes  color  as  the  sun 
sinks.  The  water  in  the  Bay,  too,  is  of  a  deep  and 
peculiar  blue,  and  the  island  of  Capri  changes  from 
azure  to  amethyst  in  the  sunset  light. 

"How  does  Vesuvius  look,  Mary?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brown,  who  had  not  yet  left  her  bed. 

"  Oh,  mamma,  it  shows  so  plainly.  There  is  a 
large  cloud  of  smoke  over  it,  and  the  cloud  rises 
right  up,  like  a  tree." 

"  That  is  a  sign  of  clear  weather,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown,  "  and  I  am  glad  Vesuvius  looks  well,  for  we 
shall  try  to  go  to  the  top  of  it  to-day.  We  mus;<; 
take  advantage  of  the  fine  weather." 

This  information  was  all  that  was  necessary  to 
make  Mary  hasten  with  her  toilet ;  but  she  found 
that  in  her  hurry  she  mislaid  everything,  and  her 
mother  was  ready  before  her. 

"  Do  not  hurry  so,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  laugh 
ing  ;  "  it  is  only  seven  o'clock  ;  we  need  not  start 


94:  MAEY   BKOWN   AT    VESUVIUS. 

before  eight.  Here  are  your  ribbons,"  and  she 
helped  her  daughter  tie  up  her  hair. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "  I  have  broken  my 
shoestring." 

"  You  cannot  wear  the  shoes  you  are  putting  on, 
my  child,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  put  on  your  old 
leather  boots.  The  stones  are  rough,  and  you 
would  tear  the  others.  And  put  on  your  old  brown 
dress.  You  see  that  I  have  on  my  oldest  clothes." 

"  Why,"  said  Mary,  "  shall  we  tear  everything  to 
pieces  ?" 

"We  may,  my  dear,  and  it  is  best  to  be  pre 
pared,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown. 

In  about  an  hour,  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  were  on. 
their  way  to  Vesuvius.  They  drove  to  Resina,  and 
there  engaged  horses  and  a  guide  to  take  them  up 
to  the  Hermitage.  Mary  was  delighted  at  the  idea 
of  having  a  ride  on  horseback.  The  guide  helped 
her  get  up  on  the  saddle,  and  telling  her  that  her 
horse  was  gentle,  he  proceeded  to  assist  Mrs.  Brown 
to  mount. 

In  the  meantime,  Mary's  horse,  which  knew  the 
road,  walked  slowly  on,  and  though  Mary  was  a 
little  frightened  at  going  off  alone,  she  did  not  call 


MAET   BROWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  95 

to  her  mother,  but  kept  perfectly  quiet.  Her  horse 
turned  into  a  narrow  path,  arched  overhead.  Upon 
this  arch  a  house  was  built.  Under  the  shadow  of 
the  arch  the  horse  stopped,  greatly  to  the  relief  of 
his  young  mistress,  and  Mary  sat  wondering  why 
people  so  often  made  the  roads  and  lanes  run  under 
houses,  when  her  mother  and  the  guide  overtook 
her. 

Mary's  horse  still  kept  ahead.  The  lane  through 
which  they  went  was  very  narrow,  and  there  were 
high  walls  on  either  side  of  it.  The  children  they 
met,  stopped  and  stood  close  to  the  wall,  lest  the 
horses  might  hit  them,  and  one  of  the  largest  girls 
called  out  : 

"  Bravo,  signorina,  Iravo  /" 

A  woman  who  passed  said  to  Mrs.  Brown,  "  La 
signorina  ha  molto  coraggio" 

"  What  did  she  say,  mamma  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  She  said,"  replied  her  mother,  "  '  that  the  little 
lady  has  a  great  deal  of  courage.' " 

"  Did  she  mean  me,  mamma  ?  I  do  not  think  it 
takes  much  courage  to  ride  on  this  horse." 

As  they  now  came  into  a  broader  road,  she  tried 
to  make  her  horse  fall  back  and  walk  beside  her 


96  MAKY   BEOWN    AT   VESUVIUS. 

mother's.  The  animals  were  in  the  habit  of  follow 
ing  each  other  in  a  single  line  up  the  mountain, 
and  they  refused  to  go  side  by  side.  This  disap 
pointed  Mary,  but  she  laughed  and  said,  "  The  horses 
like  to  have  their  own  way,  mamma." 

"  Yes,  my  child,  and  they  perhaps  know  what  is 
best  this  time." 

The  road  soon  became  smooth,  and  the  animals 
began  to  trot.  Mary  tried  her  best  not  to  be 
frightened,  and  to  keep  her  seat,  but  suddenly  she 
found  herself  slipping  down,  saddle  and  all,  toward 
the  ground. 

"Oh,  mamma  !"  she  cried  ;  but  in  a  moment  the 
guide  had  sprung  from  his  horse  and  was  at  her 
side. 

"  Your  saddle  turned,  my  love,"  said  her  mother, 
who  was  a  little  frightened,  "but  do  not  be  afraid 
The  guide  will  set  yon  on  the  ground  and  tighten 
the  girth  so  that  the  saddle  will  not  turn  again." 

Mary  trembled  a  good  deal  when  the  guide  took 
her  in  his  arms,  but  as  soon  as  she  touched  the 
ground  she  felt  safe,  and  she  went  to  her  mother, 
who  still  sat  on  her  horse. 

"  Do  not  come  too  near  my  horse,  my  dear  child," 


MARY   BROWN   AT   "VESUVIUS.  97 

she  said  ;  "sit  down  on  that  stone  until  the  girth 
is  fastened." 

Mary  did  so,  and  tried  not  to  be  afraid  to  mount 
again. 

"  It  does  take  some  courage  to  ride  a  horse, 
mamma,  I  think,"  she  said  at  last. 

"  Oh,  you  have  enough  courage,"  saicl  her  mother. 
"  Now  your  saddle  is  ready,  and  we  can  go  on 
safely." 

The  guide  lifted  her  up,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
she  felt  quite  secure  on  the  horse.  She  leaned  for 
ward  and  patted  the  animal  on  his  neck. 

"  You  are  a  good  horsey,"  she  said,  "  and  did  not 
mean  to  let  me  get  hurt,  I  know.  It  was  not  your 
fault  that  the  saddle  slipped,  but  please  don't  trot 
any  more." 

On  each  side  of  the  road  were  vineyards.  The 
grape-vines  were  trained  on  trees.  These?  trees  had 
but  few  leaves  ;  only  enough  to  keep  them  alive, 
and  Mary  said  she  thought  it  was  too  bad  to  keep 
them  trimmed  so,  "for,"  said  she,  "they  do  not 
have  any  enjoyment  at  all." 

"  Perhaps  it  gives  them  pleasure  to  hold  up  the 
vines,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  smiling. 
9 


98  MAKY   BROWN   AT   VESUVIUS. 

"  I  hope  it  does,  mamma,"  answered  Mary,  "  but 
for  my  part,  I  doubt  it.  I  think  they  would  rather 
have  leaves  and  fruit  of  their  own." 

They  were  now  ascending  a  steep,  winding  road, 
and  the  guide  told  them  to  look  back  and  see  Naples 
and  the  Bay.  The  city  and  Bay  were  far  below  them, 
for  they  had  'been  gradually  climbing  ever  since  they 
left  Resina,  and  a  broad  brown  descent  lay  between 
them  and  the  plain  on  which  Naples  stood.  The 
houses  of  the  city  were  dazzlingly  white,  for  the  sun 
shone  on  them,  and  the  Bay  was  of  a  deep,  bright 
blue.  The  suburbs  of  Naples  enclosed  the  Bay,  so 
that  it  looked  as  if  it  lay  within  a  half-ring  of  white 
houses.  Beyond  the  houses,  a  semi-circle  of  hills 
rose,  and  these  were  of  a  paler  and  more  delicate 
blue.  Mrs.  Brown  and  her  daughter  looked  with 
delight  at  this  beautiful  map  spread  out  below 
them. 

Soon  they  came  in  sight  of  the  Hermitage.  It  is 
a  large  building,  standing  alone  half  way  up 
Vesuvius.  The  road  ascends  until  it  reaches  the 
Hermitage,  and  then  for  some  distance  the  ground 
is  almost  level.  From  this  plain,  the  cone  of  Vesu 
vius  rises.  Mary  looked  up  at  the  Hermitage. 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  99 

"  Does  it  not  look  lonely  ?"  she  said.  "  I  would 
iiot  like  to  live  there,  so  near  Vesuvius.  I  could 
not  trust  the  volcano." 

"Look,  my  child,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "at  the 
ground  over  which  we  are  passing.  The  vineyards 
are  far  below  us,  and  all  around  us  we  see  no 
plants  at  all.  The  ground  is  almost  black,  and 
covered  with  irregular  masses  of  stone." 

"  What  queer  looking  stone,  mamma  ;  it  is  all 
full  of  holes,  and  yet  it  looks  very  hard." 

"  It  was  thrown  out  from  the  mountain,  Mary,"  said 
her  mother.  "  The  ground  here  is  made  of  the  ashes 
that  fell  from  the  volcano,  and  the  great  heaps  of 
sponge-like  stone  were  also  thrown  out.  What  a 
fearful  shower  it  must  have  been,  when  they  fell 
here." 

"  And  were  they  hot,  mamma  ?  I  can  hardly 
believe  it,  it  seems  so  strange." 

"  It  does  indeed  seem  strange,  Ma:y.  Do  you 
see  that  wall  beside  you  ?" 

"  Yes,  mamma." 

"  That,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  is  the  end  of  a  great 
stream  of  lava.  You  see  it  runs  up  in  a  continuous 
line  along  the  ground,  until  you  lose  it  among  the 


100  MAKT   BEOWN   AT   VESUVIUS. 

rocks,  in  the  direction  of  the  cone  of  the  volcano. 
It  ran  over  the  top  of  the  cone,  and  came  on  until  it 
reached  this  spot.  It  kept  cooling  all  the  time,  of 
course,  and  by  the  time  it  arrived  here,  it  was  so 
cool  that  it  would  not :  un  any  longer." 

"  But  how  suddenly  it  stopped,  mamma.  It  is, 
as  you  said,  just  like  a  wall.  The  lava  must  have 
been  thick  even  when  it  was  melted." 

"  Yes,  Mary  ;  it  is  melted  rock,  you  know.  The 
stream  sometimes,  as  it  runs  along,  cools  on  the  top 
while  it  is  still  very  hot  below,  and  when  it  is  at 
rest  you  can  walk  over  this  cool  upper  surface  just 
as  you  walk  on  the  crust  of  snow." 

"  Is  it  not  at  all  hot  on  top  ?"  asked  Mary,  "  I 
should  think  it  would  burn  one's  feet." 

"  It  would  probably  burn  your  shoes  a  little  even 
then,  but  it  would  not  swallow  you  up.  See  how 
desolate  all  this  region  looks  ;  there  is  no  grass,  no 
plant,  only  a  bare  waste  of  brown  rocks  and  black 
ashes." 

"  See,  mamma,  how  my  horse  picks  his  way  among 
the  rough  stones.  lie  keeps  in  front  of  yours  all 
the  time.  Just  now,  when  yours  tried  to  pass,  he 
bit  at  him.  I  cannot  see  where  the  path  lies  ; 


MART  BROWN  AT  VESUVIUS.  101 

all  things  look  alike,  and  yet  he  seems  to  know  all 
about  it." 

"Our  eyes,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  could  not  tell  the 
path  ;  and  if  we  were  alone  here,  we  might  wander 
about  all  day  among  these  masses  of  spongy  rock. 
It  is  only  now  and  then  that  we  can  see  a  trace  of 
the  path." 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  as  they  approached 
a  steep  ascent,  "  how  will  my  horse  go  up  here  ? 
It  is  just  like  stairs.  I'm  afraid  he  cannot  do  it." 

"Oh,  yes  he  can,"  said  her  mother  ;  "lean  for 
ward  a  little  when  he  goes  up,  and  then  lean  back 
ward  when  he  goes  down  on  the  other  side." 

Mary  followed  her  mother's  directions,  and  went 
over  the  place  easily.  In  a  little  while  they  came 
where  several  large  stones  were  piled  together  in 
such  a  way  that  they  were  like  a  little  flight  of 
steps,  and  she  was  surprised  to  see  her  horse  pick 
his  way  carefully  up  them.  He  went  down  on  the 
other  side  very  slowly,  but  his  motions  were  so  sud 
den  that  Mary  was  jolted  a  good  deal.  She  saw, 
however,  that  he  was  in  no  danger  of  falling,  and  she 
began  to  feel  a  real  affection  for  the  faithful  animal. 

After  passing  the  broad,  desolate  region  I  have 
9* 


102  MAHY   BROWN   £T   VESUVIUS. 

described,  they  came  to  a  steep  bank,  on  the  top  ol 
which  stood  the  Hermitage.  The  guide  shouted  to 
the  horses  to  make  them  go  up  this  bank.  The 
patient  beasts  obeyed,  but  they  showed  plainly  that 
it  was  a  difficult  task.  Mary  felt  sorry  for  her  horse, 
and  talked  to  him  to  encourage  him.  She  told  her 
mother  that  although  he  did  not  understand  Eng 
lish,  he  must  know  that  she  liked  him. 

They  passed  the  Hermitage,  in  front  of  which 
were  several  dther  travellers,  who  were  resting  a  few 
minutes  before  going  up  the  cone  of  the  mountain. 
The  road  was  now  on  the  top  of  a  long  bank,  like 
the  banks  heaped  up  for  railroads  to  run  over  in  our 
country,  and  which  all  my  young  readers  have  seen. 
On  one  side  of  this  bank  was  a  plain  full  of  black 
ashes  and  cinders,  and  Mary  could  see  smoke  rising 
from  it  here  and  there.  There  were  many  large, 
yellow  spots  upon  its  surface,  as  if  some  one  had 
poured  out  a  quantity  of  bright  yellow  paint  on  the 
dark  ground. 

"  What  is  that  smoke  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  It  rises  from  the  lava  which  has  not  yet  lost  all 
its  heat,  for  the  plain  is  covered  with  lava  that  ran 
down  there  last  year,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown. 


MART   BEOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  103 

"  Last  year  1"  cried  Mary.  "  Oh,  I  wish  I  had 
sjen  it  running.  And  what  is  the  yellow,  mam 
ma  ?" 

"  It  is  sulphur,"  said  her  mother. 

"  It  looks  just  the  color  of  rolls  of  brimstone," 
said  Mary. 

"  Yes,  my  dear,  brimstone  is  sulphur,  you  know." 

"  I  wish  my  horse  would  not  go  so  near  the  edge 
of  the  bank,  mamma." 

"  There  is  no  danger,  my  child,"  said  her  mother, 
encouragingly  ;  "he  knows  the  path,  and  he  would 
be  quite  as  unwilling  to  fall  down  the  bank,  as  you 
would  be  to  have  him.  Have  you  noticed  the  trees 
that  grow  down  the  side  of  the  bank  ?" 

"  Why,  they  are  all  dead,  1.  think,"  said  Mary, 
surprised. 

"  What  do  yon  suppose  killed  them  ?"  asked  her 
mother. 

"I  am  sure  I  do  not  know.  Was  it  the  lava, 
mamma  ?" 

"  It  was  probably  the  heat  and  sulphurous  vapor 
from  that  great  bed  of  lava  in  the  plain  just  below," 
said  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  It  seems  cruel,  does  it  not  ?"  asked  Mary. 


104  MAET   BKOWBT  AT  VESUVITJS. 

"  I  suppose  the  lava  thinks  that  all  this  mountain 
is  its  own,  and  that  the  trees  have  no  right  to  grow 
here." 

They  rode  on,  enjoying  the  novelty  of  the  scene,, 
and  before  long  came  to  a  spot  where  the  guide 
asked  them  to  dismount.  He  said  the  horses  could 
go  no  farther,  and  they  must  proceed  on  foot  or  else 
be  carried. 


MARY   BKOTVN   AT   VESUVIUS.  105 


CHAPTER    VII. 

WHEN  Mrs.  Brown  had  alighted,  she  turned  to 
look  about  her.  "There,  on  our  left,"  said  she  to 
Mary,  "  stands  Monte  Somma." 

Mary  looked  at  the  mountain,  which  shut  off  all 
view  of  the  country  and  sky  on  their  left.  It  was 
brown  ;  only  a  little  yellow  moss  grew  upon  its 
stones.  Its  side  was  rough  and  seamed  with  narrow 
fissures.  It  rose  abruptly  from  the  plain  where 
they  stood. 

"  You  see,  my  child,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  pointing 
along  the  course  of  the  mountain,  "  that  Monte 
Somma  curves  a  good  deal,  and  partly  encloses  the 
plain  on  which  we  are  standing.  This  plain  is  the 
old  crater  where  the  vines  used  to  grow." 

"  And  did  Spartacus  and  his  little  army  climb 
such  a  height  as  Monte  Somma,  to  get  out  ?"  in 
quired  Mary,  in  surprise. 


106  MARY   BKOWN   AT   VESUVIUS. 

ft 

"  I  suppose  so,"  replied  her  mother. 

"  I  am  glad  I  was  not  one  of  his  soldiers. 
long  ago  was  it  that  he  did  it,  mamma  ?" 

"  It  was  seventy-three  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ." 

"  Oh,  mamma,  suppose  the  eruption  had  taken 
place  while  he  was  here,"  said  Mary,  quite  excited 
by  the  thought. 

"  How  long  was  it  after  he  was  here  that  the 
eruption  did  take  place  ?"  asked  her  mother. 

"  Let  me  see,"  answered  the  little  girl,  slowly. 
lt  Spartacus  was  here  seventy-three  years  before 
Christ  was  born,  and  the  eruption  was  seventy-nine 
years  after  the  birth  of  Christ.  I  must  add  the 
numbers  together.  It  was  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
two  years.  That  is  a  great  while.  You  said, 
mamma,  that  one  side  of  the  old  crater  fell  away 
during  the  great  eruption  ;  which  side  was  it  ?" 

"It  was  on  our  right,  Mary.  It  is  entirely  gone 
now.  It  ran  around  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the 
cone  of  Vesuvius,  and  enclosed  the  plain  on  which 
we  stand.  The  cone  of  Vesuvius,  you  know,  rose 
right  out  of  this  plain.  It  came  up  just  in  the  mid 
dle  of  it,  that  is,  just  in  the  middle  of  the  ancient 


MARY   BEOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  107 

crater.  We  cannot  see  the  whole  plain  now,  be 
cause  the  cone  is  in  the  way."  • 

All  this  time  Mrs.  Brown  was  preparing  her 
self  and  Mary  to  walk  up  the  mountain.  She 
fastened  her  own  skirt  up  around  her  waist  by 
means  of  a  strap,  so  that  she  need  not  be  obliged 
to  hold  it  up  with  her  hands,  for  she  wanted  them 
free  in  order  to  help  herself  up  the  steep  path.  She 
also  tied  Mary's  shawl  around  her  in  such  a  way 
that  she  could  freely  use  her  arms. 

The  guide  gave  each  of  them  a  pole  or  long  cane, 
and  told  them  to  follow  him.  As  they  went  along, 
several  men  followed  them  with  broad  belts  and 
with  chairs.  They  urged  Mrs.  Brown  to  get  into 
one  of  the  chairs,  and  let  them  carry  her  up.  Find 
ing  she  would  not  do  this,  they  wanted  to  put  one 
of  the  belts  around  her  waist,  and  draw  her  up  by 
a  leathern  strap,  fastened  to  the  belt.  Mrs.  Brown 
preferred  to  help  herself  up,  but  she  hired  the  men 
to  carry  Mary  in  a  chair,  for  she  was  afraid  her 
daughter  would  fall  and  hurt  herself. 

Mary  laughed  very  much  at  the  idea  of  being 
carried  up  the  mountain.  Mrs.  Brown  told  the  men 
to  go  very  slowly,  so  that  she  could  keep  up  with 


108  MART   BROWN   AT   VESUVIUS. 

them,  for  when  people  walk  up  a  steep  hill  or  moun 
tain  they  ought  to  walk  very  slowly  indeed,  in  order 
not  to  get  out  of  breath. 

"  Why,  mamma,  how  you  slip  in  the  sand,"  said 
Mary,  looking  down  from  her  seat  at  her  mother  ; 
"  you  slide  back  as  fast  as  you  walk  up." 

"  Not  quite,  my  child,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  smiling, 
"  but  it  is  pretty  difficult  to  walk,  even  with  the 
help  of  this  pole.  I  shall,  however,  get  used  to  it 
in  a  few  minutes." 

Their  guide  now  left  the  sand  and  walked  among 
and  upon  the  masses  of  rock  which  covered  one  side 
of  the  cone.  These  masses  are  of  various  sizes,  and 
sometimes  offer  a  secure  footing.  Occasionally, 
however,  they  slip  away  from  under  one's  feet,  and 
roll  down  the  mountain-side.  They  would  slip  much 
oftener  were  it  not  that  they  are  so  rough  and 
irregular,  that  they  fit  into  each  other  something 
like  the  parts  of  a  dissected  map. 

"  Mamma,"  said  Mary,  "  these  stones,  too,  look 
just  like  great  pieces  of  hard  sponge,  only  they  are 
dark  red  and  brown.  They  look,  too,  like  the 
spongy  clinker  that  comes  out  of  a  stove  in  which 
coal  has  been  burned.  I  shall  never  see  clinker  again 


MARY   BROWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  109 

without  thinking  of  Vesuvius.  And  it  is  not  strange 
the  stones  should  look  so,  for  Vesuvius  is  like  a 
great  stove  with  a  fire  in  it.  But,"  she  added, 
looking  up  towards  the  top  of  the  cone,  "  how  white 
the  mountain  is  above  us  ;  what  makes  it  so  ?" 

"  It  is  snow,"  answered  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "snow  falls 
on  mountains,  you  know,  when  it  does  not  fall  in 
the  valleys.  When  rain  fell  in  Naples  yesterday, 
snow  fell  on  Vesuvius." 

"  Shall  we  pass  over  the  snow  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"Probably,  for  a  short  distance,"  replied  her 
mother  ;  "the  snow  does  not  appear  to  be  deep." 

"  There  ought  to  be  snow  on  the  ground,"  said 
Mary,  "  for  it  is  February  ;  at  least,  there  would  be 
enow  on  the  ground  at  home.  I  shall  feel  as  if  I 
were  in  New  York,  when  I  get  up  there  in  the 
snow." 

"  Not  if  you  look  up  and  see  the  smoke  resting 
above  you  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,"  returned 
Mrs.  Brown. 

"  No,  indeed,  mamma,  I  did  not  think  of  that. 
But  may  I  not  get  out  of  the  chair  and  try  to  walk 
up  behind  you  ?  I  would  like  to  try  it  a  little 
while." 

10 


110  MARY   BKOWN    AT   VESUVIUS. 

"  If  you  wish,  you  may,  my  dear  ;"  and  Mrs. 
Brown  told  the  men  to  stop,  and  help  Mary  down 
from  the  chair. 

"  The  little  lady  wishes  to  be  as  brave  as  her 
mother,"  said  one  of  the  men;  "  that  is  well,  but  the 
walking  is  difficult.  I  will  follow  close  behind  her, 
and  catch  her  if  she  falls.'7 

Mrs.  Brown  thanked  the  man.  He  gave  Mary  a 
stick  to  walk  with,  and  she  joined  her  mother. 

"  Why,  mamma,"  she  exclaimed,  after  she  had 
taken  a  few  steps,  "  it  is  just  like  going  up  stairs,  is 
it  not  ?  Only  the  steps  are  very  rough." 

"  It  is  much  like  it,  my  dear,  but  we  should  think 
it  hard  if  we  could  have  no  better  stairs  than  these 
in  our  houses.  I  think,  moreover,  you  have  rarely 
been  up  stairs  as  steep  as  these." 

"  I  can  go  up  more  easily  if  I  take  hold  with  my 
hands,  like  a  monkey,"  said  Mary,  and  she  leaned 
forward  and  grasped  the  stones  with  her  hands. 

"  Oh,  this  goes  nicely,"  she  said,  "  I  feel  as  if  I 
were  climbing  up  a  great  stone  wall.  Is  it  not  like 
a  stone  wall,  such  as  we  see  around  meadows  in  the 
country  at  home  ?" 

"  Very  much,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  laughing. 


MAKY   BEOWN    AT   VESUVIUS.  Ill 

"  How  little  our  horses  begin  to  look,"  said  Mary, 
partly  turning  round  to  look  down  the  cone  to  the 
spot  where  they  had  left  the  a-uimals.  "  It  makes 
me  feel  as  if  I  should  fall  when  I  look  down,"  she 
added  ;  "  I  believe  it  makes  me  dizzy." 

"  It  is  better  not  to  look  back,  Mary  ;  for  it  is 
quite  as  much  as  you  can  do  to  keep  your  footing 
on  these  stones." 

"  I  am  so  warm,"  said  the  little  girl.  "  May  I 
take  off  my  shawl  ?" 

"  Yes,  but  you  must  put  it  on  the  moment  we  get 
to  the  top,  or  you  will  take  cold,"  replied  her 
mother. 

Mary  took  off  her  shawl,  and  the  man  behind  her 
offered  to  carry  it.  He  also  took  Mrs.  Brown's 
shawl,  for  the  exercise  made  any  warm  clothing  very 
uncomfortable.  After  they  had  been  climbing  half 
an  hour,  they  reached  the  snow.  It  was  not  so 
deep  but  that  the  ragged  stones  projected  through 
it.  Neither  was  it  slippery.  The  only  inconveni 
ence  that  they  felt  from  it  was  that  it  made  their 
feet  very  cold. 

Mrs.  Brown  told  the  men  to  help  Mary  into  the 
chair  again,  and  to  put  her  shawl  closely  around  her, 


112  MAHY   BKOWN   AT  VESUVIUS. 

for  she  did  not  like  her  daughter  to  walk  in  the 
snow  ;  and  she  was  so  heated  with  exercise, 
that  she  would  soon*  have  taken  a  severe  cold,  had 
•she  sat  still  without  her  shawl  about  her.  Mrs. 
Brown  saw  that  Mary  was  very  tired.  The  little 
girl  made  no  objection  to  being  put  into  the  chair, 
for  the  stones  had  hurt  her  feet.  She  had  also  lost 
her  footing  once  and  fallen  forward  upon  her  hands, 
but  the  guide  had  helped  her  up,  and  she  had  not 
hurt  herself. 

The  last  half  of  the  journey  did  not  seem  so  long 
as  the  first.  There  was  no  snow  on  the  summit  of 
the  cone,  for  the  warm  vapor  from  the  crater  rolled 
down  over  it  and  melted  it. 

Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  forgot  all  the  fatigue  of 
the  ascent  as  soon  as  they  reached  the  top.  The 
great  column  of  smoke  which  they  had  seen  before 
they  reached  the  Hermitage  looked  enormous  now 
that  they  stood  near  it.  They  sat  down  a  mo 
ment  to  rest,  but  could  not  breathe  without  cough 
ing. 

"  Mamma,  what  makes  us  cough,  and  what  is  it 
that  smells  so  queer  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"It  is  the  sulphurous  vapor  from  the  volcano  that 


MARY   BKOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  113 

smells   so,  and  it   is   also   that  which   makes  you 
cough,"  said  her  mother. 

"  But  I  can't  breathe — ugh,  mamma,  ugh," 
coughed  out  Mary.  "  Ugh,  ugh — it  stops — ugh — 
my  breath — ugh — all  the  time." 

"  In  a  little  while,"  said  her  mother,  who  was 
coughing  too,  "you  will  be  able  to  breathe  freely. 
You  are  partly  exhausted  by  the  effort  of  getting 
up  here.  Turn  your  back  upon  the  smoke  and 
walk  off  towards  the  edge  of  the  cone." 

Mary  did  so,  and  soon  recovered  her  breath. 

"Now,  my  little  lady,"  said  the  guide,  "if  your 
mother  and  you  are  ready,  we  will  go  on." 

Mary  wondered  where  they  were  going.  The 
earth  around  them  was  almost  covered  with  huge 
stones,  and  where  the  guide  stuck  his  stick  into  the 
earth  and  turned  it  up,  Mary  saw  bright  yel 
low  lumps  of  sulphur,  which  crumbled  when  he 
struck  them.  The  thick  cloud  that  was  constantly 
rolling  up  out  of  the  crater,  like  smoke  from  a 
chimney;  kept  between  them  and  the  sun,  and  Mary 
found  this  pleasant,  for  she  was  still  warm  with 
exercise  ;  but  the  sulphur  made  her  cough,  and  the 
smell  was  disagreeable. 

10* 


114:  MARY   BKOWN   AT   VESUVIUS. 

They  went  down  a  bank  into  a  great  hollow,  and 
Mary  felt  her  feet  begin  to  grow  warm. 

"  I  do  believe  that  the  ground  is  warm/'  she  said, 
and  she  stooped  down  and  put  her  hand  upon  it. 

"  It  is  warm  !"  she  exclaimed.  "  It  is  really 
quite  hot.  Do  feel  of  it,  mamma,  do  feel  of  it  I" 

Mrs.  Brown  stooped  and  felt  of  it,  and  then 
pointed  out  a  little  round  hole  in  the  ground  not 
larger  than  a  cup.  From  it  a  stream  of  vapor  was 
rising. 

"  What  is  it,  mamma  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"It  is  vapor  from  below,  my  dear,  and  without 
doubt  it  is  quite  hot." 

Mary  ran  to  the  spot,  and  stooping,  held  her 
hand  down  over  the  hole.  She  instantly  drew  it 
back,  and  exclaimed,  "  oh,  mamma,  it  is  just  like 
steam  from  the  spout  of  a  kettle  !  I  cannot  bear 
my  hand  over  it." 

"  It  will  do  for  a  little  kitchen,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 
"  After  a  while,  a  man  will  cook  us  some  eggs  at 
such  a  hole,  and  you  will  see  that  the  vapor  is  really 
as  hot  as  it  seems." 

Mary  turned  up  the  ground  with  her  stick  j  when 
she  saw  the  bright  lumps  of  sulphur  below,  she  said 


MAKY  BKOWN   AT  VESUVIUS,  115 

she  would  like  to  carry  some  home.  She  picked  one 
up  in  her  hand,  but  let  it  fall  very  quickly. 

"It  is  so  hot  I  cannot  hold  it,  mamma,"  she 
cried.  "  How  strange  1  How  afraid  I  should  be  to 
stay  up  here  long.  I  should  be  afraid  the  fire 
would  come  out  and  burn  me  up.  And  see,  there  is 
another  place  where  it  smokes,  and  yonder  is  still 
another.  What  a  very  strange  place  this  is." 

She  again  picked  up  the  lump  of  sulphur  ;  finding 
it  cooler,  she  put  it  into  her  pocket.  They  came  up 
out  of  the  hollow  ;  on  the  edge  of  the  bank  stood  a 
man  with  a  basket  of  eggs.  He  asked  Mrs.  Brown 
whether  she  would  like  the  eggs  boiled  soft  or  hard. 
She  laughed,  and  said  she  would  like  to  have  them 
boiled  hard  to-day,  for  she  wanted  to  see  how  good 
a  fire  there  was  in  his  kitchen.  He  laughed  in  return, 
and  proceeded  to  put  the  eggs  into  a  little  hole  in 
the  ground.  He  did  not  cover  them  up,  and  Mary 
said  she  did  not  see  how  they  could  cook  there. 

They  did  not  wait,  however,  but  went  up  to  a 
high  point,  from  which  they  could  look  down  upon 
the  plain.  The  guide  pointed  out  Pompeii ;  Mary 
looked  with  much  interest  at  the  spot,  though  she 
could  not  see  the  town  very  plainly. 


116  MAEY  BROWN   AT  VESUVIUS. 

In  a  few  minutes,  the  man  came  running  after 
them  with  the  eggs.  They  took  them,  and  after 
letting  them  cool  a  little,  broke  off  the  shells  and 
found  them  cooked  perfectly  hard.  In  eating  hers, 
Mary  touched  her  tongue  against  a  piece  of  the 
shell  which  still  clung  to  the  egg. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  she  cried,  "  the  shell  is  very  bit 
ter  ;  it  really  bit  my  tongue." 

"  Something  settled  on  its  surface  from  the  vapor 
that  cooked  it,"  replied  her  mother. 

"  The  eggs  are  really  well  done,  are  they  not  ?" 
asked  Mary.  "We  shall  think  of  Vesuvius  when 
we  eat  eggs  at  home." 

"  Look  at  your  dress,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 

"I  declare!"  said  Mary,  "something  has  taken 
the  color  out.  It  has  changed  from  brown  to  red." 

"  What  have  you  in  your  pocket  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brown,  smiling.  "  The  piece  of  warm  sulphur  you 
put  in  has  changed  the  color  of  your  dress." 

Mary  pulled  out  the  yellow  stone.  "  So  it  has, 
mamma,"  she  said,  aiid  she  turned  her  pocket  inside 
out.  "  And  see  my  pocket  1"  she  exclaimed,  "  there 
is  a  big  hole  in  it  !  What  a  hungry  piece  of  stone, 
to  eat  up  my  pocket.  I  will  throw  it  away." 


MAEY   BROWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  117 

She  threw  the  sulphur  down  the  side  of  the  moun 
tain.  The  guide  saw  her  do  so,  and  thought  she 
wanted  to  watch  it  ran  down  the  long  slope.  He 
therefore  took  up  a  great  stone,  and,  having  called 
Mary's  attention,  threw  it  down  the  mountain.  The 
little  girl  was  delighted  to  see  it  go  leaping  from 
spot  to  spot  down  the  long  descent,  till  at  last  it 
was  lost  to  her  sight. 

"  I  should  not  like  to  be  in  the  place  of  that 
stone,"  she  said,  stepping  back  from  the  edge  of  the 
path,  for  the  path  was  very  narrow  ;  "  and  I  am  so 
afraid  I  shall  fall,  that  I  will  run  on  to  yonder 
broad  spot." 

Her  mother  followed  her,  and  the  guide  led  them 
around  to  the  edge  of  the  great  cloud  of  smoke. 
They  came  -quite  near  to  it.  The  sun  was  just  be 
hind  it.  The  cloud  of  vapor  looked  as  if  it  were 
full  of  fire,  and  it  rolled  up  in  enormous  masses  from 
the  crater.  The  earth  was  hot,  and  a  low,  growl 
ing  sound  came  all  the  time  from  the  great  pit  out 
of  which  the  smoke  issued. 

"Oh,  mamma,  it  frightens  me,"  said  Mary,  in  a 
low  voice,  after  they  had  contemplated  this  grand 
sight  in  silence  for  a  few  minutes.  "  It  seems  just 


118  MARY   BROWN    AT   VESUVIUS. 

as  if  the  ground  under  our  feet  were  hoflW,  and 
might  fall  in  and  swallow  us.  And  the  cloud  looks 
all  red  and  yellow  inside,  just  as  if  there  were  fire 
in  it." 

"  And  see,  my  child,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  when 
the  cloud  sweeps  a  little  away  from  the  edge,  you 
can  see  that  the  crater  is  lined  with  sulphur." 

"Yes,  I  do  see  it,  mamma  ;  how  yellow  it  is. 
Can  we  not  go  a  little  nearer  ?" 

The  guide  heard  Mary  ask  this  question  ;  he 
hastened  to  Mrs.  Brown  and  pointed  out  to  her  that 
there  was  a  great  crack  in  the  ground  near  the  edge 
of  the  crater. 

"  The  earth  is  all  the  time  cracking  off  and  falling 
in,  and  it  is  not  safe  to  approach  very  near  the 
crater.  You  know,  my  little  lady,"  he  continued, 
turning  to. Mary,  "that  the  crater  is  a  great  pit 
full  of  steam  and  smoke,  and  melted  lava,  and  if  you 
fell  in  you  would  be  killed  in  a  moment.  I  do  not 
wonder  that  you  want  to  go  nearer,  for  the  cloud  of 
smoke  is  very  beautiful,  but  it  is  very  terrible  too." 

While  they  stood  looking,  the  piece  of  earth  that 
was  cracked  fell  into  the  crater.  Mary  started  and 
appeared  frightened. 


MAEY   BEOWN   AT   VESUVIUS.  119 

"  Let  us  go  away,  mamma,"  she  said,  "  I  am 
afraid  of  the  volcano.'7 

"  You  need  not  be  alarmed,  my  dear,"  said  her 
mother,  taking  her  hand.  "  While  we  look  at  this 
fearful  scene  we  think  of  the  great  power  of  our 
Heavenly  Father,  and  yet  His  power  is  just  as 
wonderful  in  the  creation  of  a  rose,  or  a  violet,  as 
in  the  formation  of  this  volcano.  We  will  now 
leave  this  spot  and  turn  our  faces  homeward." 

They  then  walked  to  that  part  of  the  mountain 
where  they  had  come  up.  The  guide  told  them 
that  they  could  not  go  down  over  the  stones  by 
which  they  had  ascended,  but  must  take  an  easier 
path  through  a  line  of  ashes  that  reached  from  the 
top  of  the  cone  to  the  bottom. 

Mary  walked  down  with  her  mother,  instead  of 
being  carried  in  a  chair.  It  had  taken  them  an  hour 
to  go  up  the  cone.  It  did  not  take  them  half  that 
time  to  descend.  The  ashes  were  deep,  and  their 
feet  went  far  down  into  them.  It  was  very  much 
like  walking  down  a  hill  in  deep,  soft  snow. 
Wherever  they  put  down  their  feet  they  slipped,  and 
sometimes  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  slid  together  quite 
a  distance.  Several  times  Mary  fell  on  her  back, 


120  MAEY  BEOWN  AT  VESUVIUS. 

because  her  feet  slid  away  from  under  her.  At 
last,  slipping,  and  sliding,  and  jumping,  they  came 
near  the  foot  of  the  cone,  and  then  they  ran  the 
rest  of  the  way. 

Mary's  shoes  were  quite  full  of  ashes  and  little 
stones,  and  she  was  out  of  breath  with  running 
and  laughing.  After  a  few  moments'  rest  at  the 
foot  of  the  cone,  she  was  lifted  on  her  horse,  and 
her  mother  and  she,  followed  by  the  guide,  rode  off 
to  the  Hermitage,  and  went  past  it  down  the  moun 
tain. 

At  Resina,  they  took  a  carriage  and  drove  to 
Naples,  and  little  Mary  was  glad  to  dine  and  go  to 
bed.  That  night  she  dreamed  about  Vesuvius, 
and  thought  she  was  a  butterfly,  and  rode  not  only 
up  to  the  Hermitage,  but  also  up  the  cone  and 
down  into  the  crater,  on  the  back  of  a  beautiful 
yellow  horse,  just  the  color  of  sulphur. 


MARY  BEOWN   AT  THE  MUSEUM.  121 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

"  MAMMA,"  said  Mary,  when  her  mother  awoke 
the  next  morning,  "  I  have  been  looking  at  the 
walls  of  this  room  ever  since  I  opened  my  eyes,  and 
do  you  not  see  that  they  are  painted  to  look  like  the 
walls  of  the  rooms  at  Pompeii  ?  They  are  painted 
in  large  panels,  and  in  the  middle  of  each  panel  is 
a  little  picture  of  a  cupid,  or  a  girl  dancing,  or 
else  carrying  fruit.  And  on  the  wall  opposite  the 
window,  there  is  a  picture  of  a  faun  kneeling  down 
to  feed  a  goat.  Is  it  not  pretty,  mamma  ?" 

"It  is  pretty,  Mary,"  said  her  mother.  "  Over 
head,  too,  you  see  little  ropes  made  of  flowers 
stretched  across  the  ceiling,  and  in  among  them  are 
little  griffins  and  strange  animals.  In  the  centre  of 
the  ceiling  you  see  a  boy  carrying  a  great  basket 
of  grapes." 

"Did  the  man  who  owns  this  house  have  this 
11 


122  MART   BKOWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

room  painted  so,  just  to  make  it  look  like  the 
rooms  at  Pompeii  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  No  doubt,  rny  dear,"  replied  her  mother.  "  The 
pictures  and  decorations  of  the  rooms  at  Pompeii 
are  very  much  admired,  arid  a  great  many  rooms  in 
Naples  are  painted .  in  imitation  of  them.  The 
mosaic  pavements  are  also  often  imitated." 

"  How,  mamma  ?" 

"  Tiles,  about  a  foot  square,  are  made  to  look  as 
if  they  were  made  up  of  a  great  many  little  square 
pieces,  and  different  parts  of  the  pavement  are 
copied  on  a  great  many  different  tiles  ;  when  these 
tiles  are  laid  together,  they  look  like  the  beautiful 
mosaics." 

"  I  should  like  to  see  them,  mamma,"  said  Mary. 
"  Where  are  we  going  to-day  ?" 

"To-day  we  will  go  to  the  Museum,  Mary," 
answered  her  mother,  "  for  I  want  you  to  see  the 
pictures  and  mosaics  that  really  came  from  Pom 
peii." 

"How  glad  I  am,  mamma.  And  what  a  pleasant 
visit  we  are  having  at  Naples.  I  feel  as  if  I  were 
learning  a  great  deal.  Oh,  how  much  I  shall  have 
to  tell  the  girls  at  school  when  I  get  home  ;"  and 


MARY   BROWN   Al    THE   MUSEUM.  123 

Mary  flew  to  dress  herself  as  speedily  as  pos 
sible. 

As  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  drove  through  the 
streets,  on  their  way  to  the  Museum,  the  latter 
said  : 

"  Mamma,  the  outsides  of  the  houses  here  are 
painted  pale  pink  and  yellow — those  at  Pompeii 
are  deep  red  and  yellow,  but  I  do  believe  these 
houses  are  painted  in  this  way  to  remind  people  of 
those  ancient  houses.  I  thought  the  color  of  the 
houses  very  funny,  when  we  first  came  to  Naples, 
but  I  got  used  to  it,  and  should  not  have  thought 
of  it  again,  had  I  not  seen  Pompeii.  I  wonder  how 
Vesuvius  is  this  morning." 

"  Vesuvius  has  not  altered  much  since  yesterday 
morning,"  said  her  mother.  "I  saw  it  from  the 
window  before  we  came  out,  and  the  smoke  was  ris 
ing  straight  up." 

"  Did  you  tear  your  clothes  yesterday,  mam 
ma  ?" 

"Not  my  dress,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "for  that  you 
know  I  fastened  up  around  my  waist,  but  the  hem 
of  one  of  my  petticoats  was  partly  torn  off,  and 
what  was  not  torn  off  was  full  of  ashes  " 


124:  MAET    BROWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  How  could  the  ashes  get  into  the  hem  ?"  asked 
Mary. 

"  They  are  so  fine  that  they  sift  through  the 
cloth,  and  get  in  between  the  stitches,"  said  her 
mother. 

"  I  did  not  examine  mine,  mamma.  You  told  me 
to  put  on  clean  clothes  this  morning,  and  I  never 
looked  at  the  others." 

They  stopped  in  front  of  the  Museum,  and  Mary 
was  delighted  to  see  that  it  was  very  large. 

"Oh,  mamma,  there  is  room  here  for  a  great, 
great  many  things,"  she  cried. 

The  hall  was  very  broad,  and  there  were  some 
great  statues  in  bronze  and  marble  in  it.  At  the 
end  of  the  hall  was  a  wide,  handsome  staircase,  and 
on  each  side  of  the  hall  there  were  rooms,  in  which 
curiosities  were  kept.  The  doors  of  these  rooms 
were  open,  but  a  little  iron  railing  ran  across  the 
doorway  to  keep  people  from  passing  in.  In  this 
railing  there  was  a  gate,  and  in  each  room  was  a 
man,  whose  business  it  was  to  open  the  gate  and 
let  people  in  and  out. 

They  went  into  the  first  suite  of  rooms.  The 
walls  were  covered  with  the  pieces  of  wall  brought 


MAKY   BROWN   J.T   THE   MUSEUM.  125 

from  the  cities  of  Herculaneum,  Pompeii,  and  Sta- 
bia3.  They  were,  for  the  most  part,  the  pictures 
which  had  been  in  the  middle  of  the  panels,  and 
they  were  now  placed  in  narrow  wooden  frames. 

"  Oh,"  cried  Mary,  as  she  glanced  about  her, 
"  these  are  the  pictures  I  How  old  and  faded  many 
of  them  look,  and  some  look  quite  new.  Why, 
mamma,  there  is  a  rooster  ;  is  it  not  natural  ?  And 
there,  beyond,  is  a  picture  of  a  girl  dancing,  and 
there  is  another,  and — why,  there  are  ever  so  many 
of  them  ;  are  they  not  pretty  ?" 

"They  are  very  graceful,  my  dear,"  answered 
Mrs.  Brown. 

"  There  is  a  picture  of  a  town  on  the  edge  of 
a  bay.  Is  it  not  queer,  mamma  ?  It  does  not 
look  right.  It  looks  like  the  pictures  on  our 
china  plates  at  home.  What  a  queer  ship  that  is 
on  the  water  !"  and  Mary  ran  rapidly  from  picture 
to  picture,  talking  all  the  time  of  the  strange  things 
represented. 

Mrs.  Brown  called  her  attention  to  a  small  paint 
ing  which  she  had  passed  by  without  noticing. 
"  Look  at  it  attentively,"  she  said,  "  and  tell  me 
what  it  is." 

11* 


126  MAKY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  Oh,  how  funny  !"  cried  Mary,  laughing  ;  "  it  is 
a  green  bird  drawing  a  little  carriage." 

"  And  who  drives  the  carriage  ?" 

"I  do  believe  it  is  a  grasshopper,"  exclaimed 
Mary,  looking  closely  at  the  picture.  "Is  it  not  a 
grasshopper,  mamma  ?" — (See  Plate,  page  40.) 

"Yes,  my  dear." 

"  It  looks  just  as  if  it  were  made  to  be  put  in  a 
picture  book,"  said  Mary.  "  If  I  could  draw  and 
paint,  I  should  like  to  copy  that  picture  to  take 
home  with  me." 

•  "  See  that  chariot  drawn  by  a  griffin,  and  a  but 
terfly  is  driver,"  said  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  would  you  not 
like  to  copy  that  too  ?" 

"  Oh,"  cried  Mary,  delighted  with  the  odd  pic 
tures,  "  I  would  like  to  have  them  all  ;  but  if  I  had 
to  choose  among  them  I  should  certainly  take  the 
bird.  But  do  you  see,  mamma,  those  pretty  little 
babies  ?" 

"  They  are  little  cupids,  my  dear,"  said  her 
mother,  "  or  perhaps  they  are  wine  genii" 

"  What  are  wine  genii,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  are  little  winged  boys  who  are  represented 
as  being  very  fond  of  grapes  and  wine.  One  of 


MARY   BKOWJST   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  127 

them,  you  see,  has  a  wine  bottle  ;  the  other  is  play 
ing  upon  a  lyre." 

"  That  is  a  queer  wine  bottle,"  said  Mary. 

"  It  is  an  amphora,"  replied  her  mother.  "  You 
see  it  is  shaped  like  the  wine  jugs  we  saw  in  the 
cellar  of  the  villa  of  Diomedes,  at  Pompeii.  Such 
jugs  were  called  amphorae." 

"  I  thought,"  said  Mary,  "  that  such  a  jug  was 
called  an  amphora,  but  j  ou  say  amphora." 

"Amphora  is  the  plural  of  amphora"  said  Mrs. 
Brown.  "  You  see  this  bottle  is  sharp  at  one 
end." 

"  Oh,  yes,  mamma,  that  is  the  end  that  is  thrust 
into  the  ground  to  make  the  jug  stand  up.  I 
remember  all  you  told  me  about  it  the  other  day." 

"  Yonder,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  is  another  cupid." 

"  Why  yes,  mamma.  He  is  flying  up  to  a  grape 
vine,  and  another  little  cupid  below,  picks  up  the 
grapes  he  drops,  and  puts  them  into  a  basket.  How 
pretty  it  is.  And  there,  mamma — do  look — is  a 
little  fellow  with  wings  going  up  a  ladder  to  pick 
grapes,  and  his  little  brother  holds  up  his  hands  to 
catch  them.  That  is  just  like  pictures  in  a  story 
book." 


128  MAKY   BEOWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  That  long  picture,  Mary,"  said  her  mother, 
"  represents  a  sacrifice  to  Ceres,  the  goddess  of  the 
earth.  She  was  supposed  to  make  grain  and  all  the 
fruits  of  the  earth  grow.  You  see  the  altar  and 
the  priest,  and  on  that  little  pedestal  is  a  statue  of 
the  goddess.  The  pig,  which  a  man  is  leading 
towards  the  altar,  is  the  victim." 

"  It  takes  a  great  while  to  understand  these  pic 
tures,"  said  Mary,  "so  many  of  them  are  about 
things  that  I  am  ignorant  of." 

"  You  cannot  understand  them  all,  my  love,"  re 
plied  her  mother,  "  but  you  can  learn  a  great  deal  from 
them.  Yonder  is  a  picture  of  Venus,  floating  on  a 
shell  in  the  sea.  You  know  who  Venus  was,  Mary?" 

"  Venus  was  the  goddess  of  beauty,"  answered 
Mary,  promptly  ;  "  and  she  was  always  made  very 
beautiful  in  statues  and  pictures." 

"  Look  at  this  pretty  picture,  Mary.  A  little 
girl  with  wings  is  flying  along  with  a  cupid  who  has 
a  basket  of  fruit  in  his  hand,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 
(See  Frontispiece.) 

11  How  pretty  that  is,"  said  Mary.  "  See  that 
little  branch  she  holds.  Who  is  that  little  girl, 
mamma  ?" 


MAEY   BROWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM.  129 

"  She  is  called  Psyche,  my  dear.  She  and  Cupid 
were  playmates,  and  were  very  fond  of  each  other. 
You  will  learn  about  them  when  you  study  more 
about  the  ancient  Greek  and  Eoman  stories." 

"  There  are  two  green  animals  that  look  like 
dogs,"  said  Mary.  "  They  are  standing  on  their 
hind  legs,  and  have  got  a  long  twig  in  their  fore- 
paws.  They  look  just  as  if  they  were  turning  a 
rope  for  somebody  to  jump." 

"And  see,  my  dear,  how  yellow  the  wall  is 
behind  them.  Jugt  beyond  them  is  a  pretty  stag, 
on  a  green  ground." 

"  See  those  birds,  mamma,  walking  along  to  meet 
each  other.  There  is  a  mask  between  them  ;  how 
pretty  they  are." 

"  All  these  pictures,  Mary,  were,  as  I  have  said, 
taken  from  the  middle  of  the  panels,  or  from  the 
borders  of  the  walls.  We  will  go  now  and  see 
some  of  the  walls  themselves,  for  a  great  many 
whole  walls  have  been  brought  from  the  buried 
cities." 

Some  of  the  walls  were  very  broad  and  high,  and 
Mary  said  that  she  would  like  to  make  a  room  by 
putting  four  of  them  together. 


130  MAKY   BEOWN    AT    T1IE    MUSEUM. 

"  That  would  be  like  making  houses  with  cards, 
as  I  used  to  do  at  home."  she  said,  "  only  it  would 
take  a  giant  to  handle  these  walls.  Each  of  them 
was  the  whole  side  of  a  room,  I  think  ;  how  very 
ornamental  they  are." 

"  They  are  indeed,"  returned  her  mother.  "  Look 
yonder,  Mary,  and  tell  me  what  is  represented  on 
that  wall  opposite  us." 

"  Well,  mamma,  the  wall  is  dark,  and  on  it  is 
painted  a  long  rod  with  a  knob  at  each  end.  The 
rod  is  held  up  by  a  rope  made  of  flowers  that  comes 
from  above  to  each  end.  The  rope  hangs  down  in 
pretty  festoons  all  along  the  rod.  And  two  bows 
are  made  in  the  rope  where  it  is  tied  to  the  rod, 
and  from  the  bows  two  little  baskets  hang  down. 
Why,  how  very  pretty  it  is  !  I  think  the  Pom- 
peians  must  have  known  how  to  make  pretty  baby- 
houses." 

"  You  have  forgotten  to  say  anything  about  the 
man  who  is  dancing  on  the  rod.  He  holds  a  long 
pole  in  his  hand  to  balance  himself,  just  as  rope- 
dancers  do  now-a-days.  Do  you  notice  what  a 
bright  deep  red  he  is  painted  ?" 

"  Yes,  mamma,  it  is  a  beautiful  color." 


.ALARY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  131 

"The  pictures  of  Pompeii  are  noted  for  their 
bright  colors,"  said  Mrs.  Brown.  "  The  people  were 
very  fond  of  seeing  rope-dancers  perform.  Beyond, 
you  see  another  picture  that  probably  came  from 
the  same  room,  for  it,  also,  has  a  rod  held  up  by  a 
rope  of  flowers,  while  a  man  dances  upon  it." 

"  And  little  baskets  hang  down  from  that,  too," 
said  Mary.  "  How  many  masks  and  festoons  there 
are  in  these  pictures,  and  how  many  pillars,  too." 

"  Yes,  my  love,  the  Pompeians  seem  to  have  been 
very  fond  of  making  their  rooms  look  larger  by  intro 
ducing  painted  columns,  and  niches,  and  recesses 
into  the  decorations  of  their  walls.  Sometimes  it 
seems  as  if  you  could  look  on  from  room  to  room, 
through  open  doors  and  arches.  There,  my  child, 
is  a  painted  niche,  and  on  the  wall  of  the  niche  is 
a  lion." 

"  I  should  be  afraid  of  him  if  he  were  alive",  he 
looks  so  ferocious.  And  see  that  long-legged  bird, 
mamma,  with  a  long  neck.  And  beyond  is  a  foun 
tain,  with  the  water  dashing  up,  and  behind  the 
fountain  is  a  little  fence,  which  looks  just  like  any 
cross-barred  fence.  There  is  a  bird  walking  on  the 
top  of  it." 


132  MAEY   BEOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  And  see,  Mary,  what  a  bright,  bright  red  that 
is  on  the  next  wall.  It  looks  as  if  it  were  not  yet 
dry,  and  against  it  is  painted  a  pillar  with  a  broad 
yellow  ribbon  fluttering  about  in  the  air." 

"  And  there,  mamma,  is  a  wall  which  is  made  to 
represent  the  entrance  to  some  great  palace.  And 
yonder  is  a  woman  selling  little  Cupids  !  How  cun 
ning,  mamma  !  They  look  like  little  birds. 

Mary  was  delighted  with  these  walls,  for  she  felt  as 
if  she  were  again  in  Pompeii.  I  know  no  better 
way  of  showing  my  young  readers  how  they  looked 
than  to  insert  in  this  book  a  picture  of  one. 

It  is,  as  you  see,  divided  into  panels.  Along  the 
bottom  are  plants  and  two  swans.  The  middle 
panel  is  yellow,  and  on  each  side  of  it  is  a  slen 
der  twisted  column,  with  a  mask  hanging  on  it.  On 
the  top  of  each  column  is  a  basket  of  flowers.  A 
little  cross-barred  fence  is  at  the  foot  of  the  columns, 
and  looks  as  if  it  stood  in  front  of  them.  In  the 
middle  of  the  yellow  panel  is  the  picture  of  a  sea 
horse.  The  panels  at  the  side  are  red.  In  the 
middle  of  one  are  two  fishes  tied  together  ;  in  the 
middle  of  the  other  are  two  doves. 

I  cannot  tell  you  about  all  the  pictures  Mary  saw 


MABY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  133 

that  day.  She  could  hardly  remember  them  separ 
ately  when  she  got  home.  That  night  she  dreamed 
of  flying  boys  and  girls,  of  swans  and  doves,  and 
grasshoppers,  and  of  beautiful  houses  and  airy  rope- 
dancers. 

The  next  day,  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  went  to  the 
Museum  again,  and  saw  some  bronze  statues  which 
came  from  the  buried  cities.  There  was  one  small 
statue  of  a  faun  dancing,  that  came  from  the  House 
of  the  Faun  at  Pompeii. 

"  Oh,  we  went  into  that  house,"  cried  Mary ; 
"  and  a  faun  is  not  a  kind  of  deer.  It  is  a  wood- 
god,  and  it  is  not  spelled  f-a-w-n,  but  f-a-u-n  ;  is  it 
not,  mamma  ?"  and  Mary  laughed,  for  she  remem 
bered  the  mistake  she  made  at  Pompeii. 

They  saw,  too,  the  statue  of  the  goddess,  with  a 
hole  between  her  shoulders  for  the  priest  to  speak 
through.  Mary's  attention  was  also  attracted  to  a 
little  statue  which  had  a  singular  mark  on  its 
neck. 

"  It  looks  as  if  a  piece  of  cloth  had  been  laid  on 
it  when  the  bronze  was  soft,"  said  Mary. 

"  You  are  not  far  from  the  truth,"  replied  Mrs. 
12 


134:  MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

Brown.  '•  These  statues  were  buried  in  the  lava  and 
ashes  ;  some  of  them,  as  you  see,  were  partly  melted 
by  the  heat.  This  little  statue  was  found  carefully 
wrapped  up  in  a  piece  of  cloth  ;  the  heat  had  melted 
the  statue  a  little,  so  that  the  cloth  stuck  to  it. 
When  the  cloth  was  taken  off,  it  left  the  mark  of 
the  threads." 

"  How  strange,  mamma  ;  but  why  was  it  wrap 
ped  up  r 

"  Probably,  in  order  to  carry  it  away.  It  was 
found  in  a  large  pot  ;  it  is  supposed  that  its  owner 
hoped  to  transport  it  in  safety,  but  found  that  he 
had  not  time  to  do  more  than  save  his  own  life." 

They  saw,  also,  a  great  many  fine  statues  in  mar 
ble,  and  spent  nearly  a  whole  day  among  them. 
Mrs.  Brown  told  her  daughter  that  the  first  speci 
mens  of  statuary  were  found  at  Herculaneum.  She 
showed  her  four  statues  that  looked  alike,  and  told 
her  that  they  were  the  likenesses  of  four  sisters. 
She  said  also  that  the  statues  of  their  father,  and 
mother,  and  brother  were  found  in  the  same  house 
with  them. 

There  are,  in  the  great  Museum,  so  many  things 


MAKY  BROWN   AT  THE   MUSEUM.  135 

from  the  buried  cities,  that  I  am  afraid  my  young 
readers  will  be  tired  of  hearing  about  them.  If, 
however,  they  are  not,  I  will  tell  more  about  them 
in  the  next  chapter. 


136  MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  great  Museum  contains  not  only  many  rooms 
filled  with  pictures  and  statues,  but  also  several 
large  apartments  full  of  household  articles  taken 
from  the  dwelling-houses  in  Pompeii.  Into  these 
rooms  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  went,  on  their  next 
visit  to  the  famous  Museum. 

"Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  as  they  entered,-  "  did 
these  things  really  come  from  Pompeii  and  Hercu- 
laneum  ?  I  should  think  they  were  new,  or  else  that  I 
was  in  somebody's  kitchen.  See,  how  many  sauce 
pans  there  are  of  all  sizes,  little  and  big,  and  they  are 
hung  up  on  the  wall,  just  as  they  would  be  in  the 
closet  at  home.  Do  tell  me,  are  they  all  old  ?" 

"  Yes,  my  love.  Little  by  little,  they  have  been 
dug  up  out  of  the  ruined  cities.  Some,  as  you  see, 
are  quite  burnt  ;  others  look,  as  you  say,  almost 
new." 


MARY  BEOWN   AT  THE  MUSEUM.  137 

"  But  were  there  so  very  many  found  buried  ?" 
asked  Mary. 

"  Oh,  yes,  and  no  doubt  a  great  many  more  will 
be  found.  You  know  that  only  about  one  fourth  of 
Pompeii  has  been  uncovered." 

"What  are  these  pots,  and  pans,  and  kettles 
made  of,  mamma  ?  They  look  black,  and  blue,  and 
green." 

"  Some  of  them  are  of  bronze,  and  others  are  of 
copper.  Their  natural  color  has  been  changed  by 
the  heat  and  vapors  to  which  they  were  exposed." 

"  What  is  bronze,  mamma  ?  I  wanted  to  ask 
you  when  we  were  looking  at  the  statues." 

"  Bronze  is  a  mixture  of  copper  and  tin.  Look 
at  this  little  cooking-stove,  Mary.  It  was  probably 
intended  to  stand  on  a  table,  and  is  made  in  the 
form  of  a  square  castle,  with  a  tower  at  each  corner. 
These  towers  and  the  walls  of  the  castle  are  hol 
low,  and  you  can  pour  water  into  them  by  opening 
the  little  lids  in  the  top  of  the  towers.  The  place 
you  see  in  the  middle  of  the  castle,  is  to  hold  the 
coals.  On  these  coals  you  may  cook  your  meat  and 
vegetables.  In  the  towers  and  walls  you  always 
have  hot  water." 

12* 


138  MARY   BEOWN   AT  THE  MUSEUM. 

"  How  do  you  get  the  water  out,  mamma  ?" 

"  On  the  other  side  is  a  stopcock  in  the  wall, 
through  which  you  can  let  it  out  when  you  want  to 
.use  it." 

"  Is  this  little  stove  old,  mamma  ?" 

"  Yes,  my  love,  it  came  from  Herculaneum." 

"  We  have  not  been  to  Herculaneum  yet,"  said 
Mary. 

"  No,  my  dear.  There  is  but  little  to  see  there, 
compared  with  Pompeii,  but  we  shall  go  there  some 
day,  I  hope." 

"  What  is  this  pan  with  four  holes  in  it  ?"  asked 
Mary. 

"  It  is  a  pan  to  boil  eggs  in,  my  love.  You  put 
an  egg  in  each  hole,  and  pour  water  around  them. 
Hold  the  pan  over  the  fire  and  they  will  soon  be 
cooked." 

"  You  could  cook  eggs  in  it  now,  mamma,  for  it 
still  looks  new." 

"  See  this  animal,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown.  "  It 
is  a  mould  for  baking  cake,  and  is  made  of  bronze. 
It  represents  a  hare,  as  you  see  by  its  shape  and 
long  ears." 

"  And  there  is  another  like  a  pig,"  cried  Mary, 


MAEY   BKOWN   AT  THE  MUSEUM.  139 

"  and  another  like  a  shell  ;  just  such  a  pan,  I  do 
declare,  as  we  bake  cake  in  at  home." 

"  It  is  exactly  such  a  one,  my  dear  ;  and  see,  in 
this  corner  are  little  stamps  to  cut  out  cake  with. 
They,  too,  are  like  those  we  use  now-a-days." 

"There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,  ma'am," 
said  the  guide,  who  was  standing  near  ;  "  everything 
in  these  rooms  is  just  like  what  we  use  now  in 
Naples,  or  else  similar.  Here  are  steel-yards, 


14:0  MAKY   BROWN  AT  THE  MUSEUM. 

ma'am.  They  are  like  those  used  in  the  shops 
here,  only  these  have  the  head  of  a  goddess  for  a 
weight." 

"  And  there,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "  is  a  cullen 
der  with  a  handle." 

"See,  my  child,  what  a  pretty  pitcher,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown ;  "  they  used  such  pitchers  for  oil  in 
Pompeii." 


"Oh,  it  is  lovely,"  said  Mary  ;  "and  there  is 
another  pretty  pitcher  with  an  angel  for  a  handle  ; 
I  like  that." 

"  Now  I  will  show  you  something  singular,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown.  "  In  this  glass  case  are  a  great  many 
weights  to  weigh  things  with.  Here  is  one  that 


MARY   BROWN   AT   THE  MUSEUM. 

came  out  of  a  store  where  pork  was  sold.     You  see 
it  is  shaped  like  a  pig." 


"  Oh,  mamma,  how  funny  1" 

11  And  here,  my  little  lady,"  said  the  guide,  "  is 
one  that  came  from  a  store  where  they  sold  cheese. 
It  is  just  the  shape  of  a  cheese." 

"  So  it  is,"  said  Mary,  delighted. 

"A  great  many  beautiful  lamps  came  from  Pom 
peii,"  said  Mrs.  Brown  ;  "  they  are  very  different  in 
shape  from  those  which  we  have.  Here  is  one  with  a 
boy  holding  a  swan,  on  the  top  of  it.  Is  it  not 
pretty  ?" 

"  Oh,  mamma,  I  would  like  to  have  that  I" 

"And  that  tall  stand  is  called  a  candelabrum, 
my  dear.  It  is  flat  on  the  top  and  was  used  to  place 
a  little  lamp  on.  And  there  you  see  a  candelabrum 


14:2  MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

in  the  shape  of  a  tree,  with  five  lamps  hanging  from 
it." 

"  It  looks  like  a  hat  stand,"  said  Mary. 


"  When  the  people  of  the  house  went  to  bed," 
said  the  guide,  •'  each  one  took  a  lamp  off  the  tree 


iMAKY   BROWN   AT  THE   MUSEUM.  143 

and  brought  it  back  in  the  morning,  and  hung  it  up 
again." 

"  What  is  the  tree  made  of  ?"  asked  Mary. 

"  Of  bronze  also,  my  dear,"  said  her  mother. 

How  very  many  pretty  lamps  there  are  here," 
said  the  little  girl.  "  There  is  one  with  a  horse's 
head  for  a  handle,  and  see  that  next  one  has  on  it  a 
boy  riding  on  a  dolphin.  Are  they  not  beautiful  ?" 

"  Yes,  indeed,  my  child  ;  and  look  at  this 
pitcher." 


"It  is  intended  for  milk,  and  you  see  two  little 
goats  just  in  front  of  the '  handle.  They  are  put 
there  because  in  old  times  goats'  milk  was  princi 
pally  used  in  this  region." 

"  Just  as  it  is  now  in  Naples,  mamma.    I  love  to 


MAKY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

watch  the  herds  of  goats  going  about  the  streets  to 
be  milked  at  morning  and  at  evening.  These  little 
goats  ought  to  «have  bells  on  their  necks  to  make 
them  look  just  like  those  we  see  now-a-days  in 
Naples.  But  what  is  that  deer's  head  ?" 


11  It  is  a  cup,  Mary." 

"  But  it  cannot  stand  up,  and  everything  that  was 
in  it  would  run  out." 

"  That  is  just  why  it  is  made  so,  my  daughter.  It 
is  called  a  sacrificial  cup,  and  from  it  the  priest 
drank  wine  during  the  religious  ceremonies.  It  was 
against  the  law  for  the  priest  to  leave  any  wine  in 
the  cup,  and  so  the  cups  were  made  of  such  a  shape 
that  they  could  not  stand  except  with  the  mouth 
downward." 

"  Here  is  another  pretty  pitcher,  mamma  ;  see  the 
two  doves  on  it.  That,  too,  is  of  bronze,  is  it  not  ?" 


MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  145 

"Yes,  Mary,  and  it  has  kept  its  color  well. 
Some  of  the  things,  you  see,  have  become  changed 
in  color.  They  have  become  green  or  deep  blue, 
from  the  effects  of  heat  and  water  when  Pompeii 
was  destroyed,  for  all  that  are  green  and  blue  came 
from  Pompeii." 

"Why,  mamma?" 

"  At  Pompeii,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown,  "  you  know 
showers  of  water  fell.  These  made  everything  wet 
before  the  city  was  buried,  and  the  heat  and  the 
moisture  together  caused  the  surface  of  the  bronze 
to  corrode.  The  iron  things  that  you  see  here  are 
quite  ruined  by  rust." 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  said  Mary  ;  "  you  can  hardly  tell 
what  they  were.  For  instance,  that  thing,  which 
the  guide  says  was  a  plane,  does  not  appear  like  one 
until  you  have  looked  at  it  a  long  time." 

"  Look  at  these  small  bronze  figures,  Mary,"  said 
her  mother,  pointing  to  some  little  ones  in  the  shape 
of  men  and  women. 

"  They  look  like  little  dolls,  mamma." 

"  They  are  images  which  the  Pompeians  kept  in 
their  houses  to  worship.  Here  is  an  image  of  For 
tune  ;  in  'one  hand  she  holds  a  cornucopia  or  horn 
13 


14:6  MARY   BROWN   AT  THE   MUSEUM. 

of  phnty.  This  cornucopia  is  full  of  flowers  and 
fruit,  to  signify  that  she  brings  good  things  and 
pours  them  out  for  the  use  of  man." 

"  And  what  is  that  she  holds  in  her  other  hand  ?" 
asked  Mary. 

"It  is  a  rudder,"  replied  her  mother.  "These 
little  images  of  gods  and  goddesses  that  were  kept 
in  the  houses  and  were  held  in  reverence  by  the 
ancients,  were  called  penates,  or  household  gods." 

"  Across  the  room  is  a  great  bronze  bathing  tub, 
mamma,  just  the  shape  of  the  one  we  have  at 
home." 

They  now  looked  into  a  case  where  were  some 
old  combs  that  were  found  in  a  lady's  dressing  case 
at  Pompeii. 

"  One  of  these  combs  would  not  be  of  much  use 
now,"  said  Mary,  "  its  teeth  are  all  broken." 

"  The  one  next  to  it  is  still  whole,"  said  her 
mother,  "  and  looks  quite  new." 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   THE  MUSEUM.  14:7 

"  So  it  does,  mamma  ;  I  wonder  who  used  it  last. 
And  do  look  at  this  thimble.  It  is  just  like  mine, 
only  larger." 

"  That  long  pin  you  see  below,  Mary, 
is  of  ivory  or  bone,  and  was  used  to  hold  up 
the  hair.  On  the  top  is  a  little  figure  of 
Venus." 

"  That  little  figure  of  the  Goddess  of 
Beauty  was  put  there,  no  doubt,  because 
the  lady  who  wore  it  was  beautiful,"  said 
the  guide.  "  It  may  have  been  a  present 
from  some  admirer.  Next  to  it,  in  a  little 
glass  box,  is  the  rouge  with  which  the  lady 
painted  her  cheeks." 


"  It  is  just  the  color  of  a  rose,"  said 
Mary.  "  Does  it  not  seem  strange  to  see 
it?" 


148  MART   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  It  does,  indeed,"  replied  her  mother,  ;  "  the 
lady  who  used  it  died  almost  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago." 

"See  that  bodkin,  mamma.  It  is  of  bone,  I 
think.  Perhaps  the  same  lady  used  it.  It  is  just 
like  the  one  in  your  work-box,  only  it  is  sharp  like  a 
needle." 

"  Here  is  a  mirror,  Mary,"  said  Mrs.  Brown, 
pointing  to  a  round  plate  of  dull  metal. 

"Why,  I  thought  that  was  a  pan,"  said  Mary. 
"  Is  it  glass  ?" 

"  Nx>,  my  dear.  There  were  no  glass  mirrors  in 
those  days.  They  were  all  of  metal,  as  this  is." 

"  Here  are  ever  so  many  keys,  mamma.  I  won 
der  what  doors  they  unlocked." 

"Many  of  them  were  found  in  the  hands  of 
skeletons,  my  daughter.  Here  is  a  curious  one. 


Its  handle  is  a  ring,  and  it  was  worn  on  the  finger. 
No  doubt  it  opened  some  precious  box." 


MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  149 

"  And  there,  mamma,  is  a  door-knocker  ;  at  least 
it  looks  like  one.  And  here,  I  do  believe,  are 
the  stocks  that  were  in  the  barracks  at  Pom 
peii  ;  at  least  they  are  like  the  wooden  ones  there 
now." 


The  guide  drew  out  the  rod  and  motioned  to 
Mary  to  put  her  feet  in  between  the  little  pieces  of 
iron.  He  then  shoved  back  the  rod,  and  she  could 
not  move. 

"  My  little  lady  is  held  fast,"  said  he,  and  then  he 
drew  out  the  rod  again  and  released  Mary,  saying, 
"  In  these  very  stocks,  miss,  the  feet  of  two  skele 
tons  were  found  fastened." 

"  There  are  many  more  things  here  from  Pom 
peii  than  from  Herculaneum,"  said  the  guide,  as 
they  walked  slowly  through  the  rooms.  "  The  reason 
is,  that  it  is  far  more  difficult  to  dig  the  things 
out  of  the  latter  city  than  out  of  the  former.  Pom- 
12* 


150  MARY   BKOWN   AT  THE  MUSEUM. 

peti  was  buried  in  a  kind  of  mud  made  of  ashes  and 
water,  but  Herculaneum  was  covered  by  a  stream  of 
lava,  which  became  solid  stone  when  it  cooled.  I 
will  show  you  a  saucepan  which  is  still  partly  em 
bedded  in  the  lava,  and  then  you  will  understand 
me." 

He  led  Mary  to  a  shelf,  from  which  he  took  down 
a  large  saucepan.  It  seemed  very  heavy,  and  he 
had  to  take  both  hands  to  lift  it.  When  he  had 
set  it  upon  a  table,  so  that  Mary  could  look  into 
it,  she  saw  that  it  was  full  of  lava,  and  that  some 
of  the  lava  still  clung  to  the  outside. 

"  The  saucepan  could  not  be  separated  from  this 
stone,"  said  he,  tapping  the  lava  with  his  finger, 
"  without  considerable  labor.  Many  of  the  articles 
found  in  Herculaneum  were  embedded  in  this  way, 
and  the  expense  of  clearing  the  stone  away  from 
them  is  very  great.  Herculaneum  furnishes  more 
beautiful  things  than  Pompeii,  and  therefore  the 
government  of  Naples  has  sometimes  been  blamed 
by  visitors  for  digging  more  things  out  of  the  latter 
city  than  out  of  the  former.  We  kee.p  this  saucepan 
in  its  original  state,  to  show  people  the  difficulty  of 
excavation  in  Herculaneum." 


MAJRT  BKOWN   AT  THE   MUSEUM.  151 

The  lava  in  the  saucepan  was  of  a  light  grey 
color,  and  Mary  laid  her  hand  upon  it,  and  found 
that  it  was,  indeed,  solid  stone. 

"  I  only  wonder,"  said  she,  "  that  so  much  has 
been  dug  out  of  Herculaneum,  and  I  am  sure  we 
ought  to  thank  the  government  for  taking  so  much 
trouble." 

"  It  was  very  much  like  digging  in  a  stone  quarry 
to  work  there,"  said  the  guide.  "  But  you  have  not 
yet  seen  all  our  curiosities,"  and  he  led  Mary  into 
another  room. 

Here  she  saw  armor  that  was  found  in  the  buried 
cities,  and  little  bells  that  the  horses  wore  on  their 
necks,  and  also  a  singular  kind  of  bell  which  the 
guide  said  was  carried  in  the  chariots,  and  was  rung 
to  warn  people  to  get  out  of  the  way.  They  saw, 
also,  some  playthings  which  had  belonged  to  children 
in  Pompeii  ;  one  of  them  was  a  little  chariot. 

"What  is  that  strange-looking  thing?"  asked 
Mary,  pointing  to  something  on  one  of  the  shelves. 

"It  is  a  helmet,"  answered  her  mother,  "and 
within  it  is  the  skull  of  one  of  the  sentinels  of  Pom- 
pen'.  The  skull  was  found  in  it,  and  you  know  the 


152  MAKY   BEOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

skeleton  of  one  of  the  sentinels  was  found  in  his  box 
at  one  of  the  gates  of  the  city." 

"  Oh,  those  poor  sentinels  !"  cried  Mary.  "  It 
makes  me  feel  sad  whenever  I  think  of  them.  I 
cannot  help  wishing  that  they  had  run  away." 

"  They  considered  it  their  duty  to  stay,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown,  "  and  no  doubt  they  preferred  losing 
their  lives,  to  having  their  sense  of  honor  doubted. 

By  this  time  Mary  was  tired,  and  although  she 
was  greatly  interested  in  all  that  she  saw,  she  was 
glad  to  say  good-bye  to  the  Museum  until  the  next 
day. 


MAKY   BROWN    AT   TIIE   MUSEUM.  153 


CHAPTER    X. 

"  ONE  more  day  at  the  Museum,  Mary,"  said 
Mrs.  Brown  the  next  morning,  "  and  we  shall  be 
through.  Are  you  tired  of  seeing  the  things  ?" 

"  No,  mamma,  while  I  look  at  them  I  keep  think 
ing  all  the  time  how  they  looked  when  they  were  in 
the  cities,  before  the  eruption  came.  How  difficult 
it  must  have  been  to  get  the  things  out  of  Hercu- 
laneurn  !" 

"  The  labor  of  digging  there,"  said  her  mother, 
"  was  so  severe  that  as  soon  as  Pompeii  was  dis 
covered  Herculaneum  was  abandoned,  although  the 
things  found  in  the  latter  place  were  the  more 
valuable.  There  was  another  reason  for  abandoning 
it.  Resina  -and  Portici  stand  right  over  it,  and  the 
houses  would  fall  down  if  the  earth  under  them 
were  dug  out.  As  the  workmen  dug,  they  had  to 
build  up  pillars  and  buttresses  to  support  the 


154:  MAKY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

houses  above,  and  this  took  a  great  deal  of  time. 
At  Pompeii,  you  know,  there  are  no  buildings 
above  the  old  city." 

"  What  shall  we  see  to-day  at  the  Museum  ?" 
asked  Mary,  as  they  drove  toward  it. 

"We  shall  see  the  paints  that  were  found  in  the 
shop  of  a  painter,  and  the  bread,  and  flour, 
and  the  figs,  and  nuts  that  were  dug  out  of  the 
houses." 

"  Oh,  that  will  be  delightful,  mamma.  I  would 
rather  see  those  than  anything  else.  But  is  the 
bread  really  almost  eighteen  hundred  years  old  ? 
I  suppose  if  I  should  try  to  eat  a  piece  it  would 
break  my  teeth." 

"  The  olives  that  were  preserved  in  oil  are  said  to 
be  fit  to  eat  yet,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  I  think  I  should  feel  very  old  if  I  ate  one  of 
them,"  replied  Mary.  "  But  here  we  are  at  the 
Museum,  mamma,"  and  she  jumped  out  of  the  car 
riage.  They  went  up  the  broad  staircase  at  the 
end  of  the  hall,  and  her  mother  called  her  attention 
to  the  floor  of  the  room  they  entered. 

"  The  mosaic  under  your  feet,"  she  said,  "  is  the 
one  that  was  taken  from  the  House  of  the  Tragic 


MARY   BEOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  155 

Poet.  You  see  here  the  great  black  dog  and  the 
words,  '  cave  canem.'  Do  you  remember  what  '  cave 
canem '  means,  Mary  ?" 

"  It  means  '  Beware  of  the  dog  ;'  but  I  am  not 
afraid  of  him,  although  he  looks  so  ferocious,  for 
he  is  made  of  little  pieces  of  stone,  and  he  cannot 
bite." 

All  around  the  room  were  glass  cases  full  of 
shelves,  in  which  were  the  things  of  which  Mrs. 
Brown  had  told  Mary. 

"  Oh,  mamma,  what  are  all  these  lumps  ?  Some 
are  red  and  some  blue,  and  such  f  beautiful  blue," 
cried  Mary,  as  she  stood  before  the  first  case. 

"  Those  are  paints,"  replied  her  mother.  "  There, 
you  see,  is  yellow,  and  there,  too,  is  a  beautiful 
delicate  pink." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  it  is  like  the  rouge  we  saw  in  the 
other  room." 

Each  color  was  laid  upon  a  separate  plate  or  else 
was  left  in  the  little  earthen  pot  in  which  it  had 
been  found.  Mary  liked  to  look  at  the  paints 
because  they  were  so  bright. 

"  Do  paints  look  just  so  in  the  shops  now-a- 
days  ?"  she  asked. 


156  MARY  BEOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  Yes,  my  dear  ;  these  are  dry  lumps.  When  they 
are  to  be  used,  they  are  ground  up  with  oil.  On 
the  shelf  below/you  see  the  great  round  stone  on 
which  they  were  ground." 

"  What  are  these  white  balls,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  are  white  lead,  and  you  see  a  name 
stamped  on  them,  just  as  a  name  is  stamped  on 
crackers.  That  is  the  name  of  the  man  who  made 
them." 

"  And  has  it  kept  all  this  time  ?"  i 

"Yes,  my  dear.  The  man  who  made  that  paint 
little  thought  ^hat  two  thousand  years  after  he 
was  dead  people  would  read  his  name  on  these 
lumps." 

"  I  think  that  pink  is  such  a  pretty  color.  It  is 
just  the  color  of  roses,  mamma." 

"  It  is,  my  child.  And  the  shell  that  lies  beside 
it  has  had  that  pink  paint  rubbed  upon  it." 

"  The  Pompeian  lady  who  owned  that  shell,  kept 
it  to  rub  her  rouge  on  before  she  painted  her 
cheeks,"  said  the  guide. 

"Was  it  found  with  paint  upon  it?"  asked 
Mary. 

"  Yes,  miss,"  answered  the  guide. 


MAKY   BEOWN   AT   THE    MUSEUM.  157 

"  The  rouge  is  rubbed  upon  it  just  as  I  rub  my 
paints  on  a  plate.  I  shall  think  of  this  whenever 
I  rub  them,  mamma,  and  I  shall  say  to  myself,  '  this 
is  the  way  the  ladies  at  Pompeii  rubbed  their  rouge 
on  shells  before  they  painted  their  cheeks.'  But 
what  are  those  white  lumps  all  twisted  up  ?" 

"  They  are  clothes,  Mary.  They  were  probably 
wet  when  the  eruption  came.  They  look  as  if  they 
had  just  been  squeezed  to  get  the  water  out,  before 
they  were  hung  up  to  dry,  when  the  showers  of  ashes 
and  stones  came  and  covered  them  up.  Next  to 
them,  on  another  plate,  are  colored  clothes." 

"Why,  mamma,  I  can  see  the  threads  ;  but  what 
makes  them  so  black  ?" 

"  They  are  burnt,  Mary.  In  that  dish  you  see 
pieces  of  rope.  They,  also,  are  perfectly  black,  and 
yet  you  can  plainly  see  what  they  are.  On  the 
next  shelf  is  a  straw  mat." 

"  That  is  all  black  and  burnt  too,"  said  Mary. 
"Almost  all  the  things  are  black.  At  first  I  can 
not  tell  what  they  are,  but  after  a  while  they  begin 
to  look  like  something." 

"You  can  tell  what  these  long  pieces  are,  I 
think." 


158  MARY   BROWX   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  They  look  like  sticks  of  wood,  mamma." 

"  They  are  sticks  of  wood.  To  bo  sure  they  look 
like  charcoal,  but  charcoal  is  only  burnt  wood,  you 
know." 

"  Here  is  something  that  looks  like  a  ball  of  silk," 
said  Mary.  "  I  can  see  the  separate  threads  as  they 
run  around ;  they  are  wound  on  a  little  piece  of  stone." 

"  It  is  a  ball  of  silk,  my  daughter,"  replied  Mrs. 
Brown,  "and  was  found  in  the  shop  of  a  sewing- 
woman.  Under  it,  in  the  same  cup,  are  some  little 
pieces  of  cloth." 

"  I  see  something  now,  mamma,  that  looks  like  a 
loaf  of  cake,  and  there  is  a  name  on  it." 

"  That  loaf  of  cake  has  the  baker's  name  on  it, 
Mary." 

"  Why,  mamma,  we  could  put  it  on  our  table, 
and  people  would  only  think  the  crust  was  burnt. 
I  suppose  the  baker  put  his  name  on  the  cake 
because  he  was  proud  of  it." 

"  No  doubt  ;  and  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been  a  very 
good  one,"  said  Mrs.  Brown. 

"  Perhaps  it  was  made  for  a  party,  mamma,  and 
the  invitations  were  all  sent  out.  We  cannot  tell 
what  it  was  made  for  ?" 


MARY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  159 

"  Only  that  it  was  made  to  be  eaten,  Mary/' 

"  And  after  all  nobody  ate  it,  mamma.  I  wonder 
how  much  it  cost.  I  see  some  money  there  in  that 
little  cup.  There  is  a  little  piece  of  burnt  paper 
under  it." 

"  That  '  burnt  paper/  as  you  call  it,  is  the  purse 
the  money  was  found  in.  Next  to  it  is  a  net, 
probably  a  fishing  net.  It  is  black,  like  most  of  the 
other  things.  They  have  put  a  piece  of  white  paper 
under  part  of  it,  to  show  the  mesh  more  plainly." 

"It  is  black  because  it  is  burnt,  is  it  not  ?" 

"  Yes,  Mary.  On  the  next  plate  you  see  black 
masses  of  twine,  or  coarse  thread.  It  is  such  thread 
as  they  made  the  nets  of,  and  there  are  the  netting- 
needles." 

"  They  are  just  like  cousin  Elizabeth's,  only  larger. 
It  seems  to  me  they  had  things  just  like  ours  in 
those  old  times.  What  is  that  white  stone  upon 
that  plate  ?" 

"  It  is— what  do  you  think  ?" 

"  Perhaps  it  is  soap,  mamma." 

"  No,  Mary  ;  it  is  flour,  all  hardened  in  a  mass." 

"  Well,  I  am  astonished.     There  is  anc  ther  white 
lump,  is  that  flour  too  ?" 
14 


L60  MARY   BKOWX    AT    THE    MUSEUM. 

"  No,  that  is  wax.  The  ancients  used  to  cover 
tablets,  or  flat  pieces  of  ivory,  or  metal,  with  wax, 
and  when  the  wax  had  become  hard,  they  scratched 
upon  it  with  a  sharp  pen.  This  was  one  of  their 
ways  of  writing.  This  pen  was  made  of  metal,  and 
was  called  a  stylus.  They  also  wrote  on  papyrus, 
with  ink  and  a  pen  made  of  a  reed." 

"  What  is  papyrus,  mamma  ?" 

"  Papyrus  is  the  inner  bark  of  a  tree  that  grows 
in  Egypt." 

"  We  saw  yesterday  the  inkstands  that  were 
taken  from  the  buried  cities,  mamma,  and  they 
look  just  like  the  round  wooden  ones  we  use  at 
school." 

"  You  know,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  that  a  library 
of  papyrus  was  found  at  Herculaneum.  We  will  go 
and  see  it  after  we  have  looked  at  the  things  in  this 
room.  Here  are  the  olives  that  were  preserved  in 
oil,"  and  she  pointed  to  a  glass  bottle,  in  which  lay 
the  little  black  fruit. 

My  young  readers  must  bear  in  mind  that  almost 
all  the  fruits,  and  nuts,  and  seeds,  etc.,  brought 
from  the  cities,  are  so  much  injured  by  the  heat  to 
which  they  were  expose  I  during  the  burial  of  the 


MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  161 

cities,  that  they  have  lost  their  color  and  become 
black,  just  as  cloth  and  nuts  and  cake  become  black 
by  burning.  Notwithstanding  this,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  tell  what  the  things  are,  and  Mary  was  delighted 
when  she  cast  her  eyes  upon  some  figs. 

"  Oh,  mamma  I"  she  exclaimed,  "  are  not  those 
figs  just  as  natural  as  if  they  had  never  been  buried. 
I've  got  a  fig  in  my  pocket ;  I  will  put  it  beside 
them  and  see  if  they  do  not  look  just  like  it." 

Mary  took  a  fig  from  her  pocket  and  put  it 
against  the  glass  which  was  between  her  and  the 
Pompeian  figs.  "They  are  just  alike,  except  in 
color,"  she  said.  "  When  I  look  at  them,  I  almost 
forget  that  they  are  old.  And  these  nuts,  are  they 
not  Madeira  nuts,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  are  what  we  call  Madeira  nuts  in  America," 
replied  Mrs.  Brown  j  "in  Europe  they  are  called 
walnuts." 

"Our  walnut  is  very  different,"  said  Mary. 

"Yes,  my  child,"  replied  her  mother,  "but  in 
Europe  there  are  no  black  walnut  nor  hickory  trees. 
Some  people,  you  know,  call  the  hickory  nut  a  wal 
nut." 

"What  are  those  little   stones?"  asked  Mary, 
14* 


162  MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

pointing  to  some  little  irregularly  shaped  pieces  that 
lay  on  one  of  the  shelves. 

"  I  do  not  know,  my  dear  ;  I  will  ask  the  guide," 
said  her  mother. 

"  Those,  madam,"  said  the  guide,  "  are  little  bones 
that  were  used  to  play  the  game  called  jackstones, 
for  at  Pompeii  the  boys  and  men,  and  even  the 
ladies,  played  the  game.  Perhaps  the  young  lady 
remembers  a  picture  in  one  of  the  rooms  down 
stairs,  which  represents  some  ladies  playing  jack- 
stones." 

In  one  of  the  cases  Mary  saw  some  hen's  eggs. 

"  Why,  mamma,"  she  cried,  "  I  do  declare  there 
are  some  eggs  ;  one,  two,  three,  four,  five.  They 
look  just  as  if  they  were  in  a  nest.  They  are  not  a 
bit  black.  Indeed,  they  are  just  like  any  eggs. 
There  are  five  whole  ones  and  some  broken 
shells." 

"  Up  in  that  glass  pot  is  some  bird  seed,"  said  the 
guide,  "  so  they  probably  kept  pet  birds  in  Pom 
peii." 

"  I  hope  they  flew  away  when  the  city  was 
buried,"  said  Mary. 

"  And  here,  miss,  are   beans  such  as  they  feed 


MAKY    BKOWK   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  163 

horses  with  in  Naples.  That  is  barley,  and  this  is 
wheat,"  and  he  pointed  to  different  dishes  full  of 
blackened  grain. 

"  What  are  those  great  shells  ?"  asked  Mary. 
"  They  are  like  some  we  have  at  home  on  the  sitting- 
room  mantel-piece." 

"  They  were  found  in  the  shops,  and  were  used  to 
ornament  them,"  said  the  guide. 

"  And  here,  Mary,  is  a  piece  of  sponge,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown,  pointing  to  a  lump  that  looked  like  any 
sponge,  only  darker. 

"Well,  mother,"  said  Mary,  "there  is  almost 
everything  here  that  we  have  now-a-days." 

They  next  looked  at  some  bracelets,  which  were 
found  on  the  skeletons,  and  in  the  houses  of  Pom 
peii.  Many  of  them  were  serpents  of  gold,  and,  when 
they  were  worn,  were  wound  two  or  three  times  around 
the  arm,  above  the  elbow.  Some  of  them  were  worn 
upon  the  ankle.  There  were  also  a  great  many 
beautiful  gold  rings,  and  many  of  these,  too,  were  in 
the  form  of  serpents.  There  were  handsome  ear 
rings,  and  necklaces,  and  chains  ;  and  Mary  looked 
with  great  interest  at  one  chain  which  was  found  on 
the  neck  of  Diomedes,  who,  my  readers  will  remem- 


164:  MARY   BEOWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

ber,  was  trying  to  escape  through  the  g&te  of  his 
garden  when  he  was  buried  by  the  ashes. 

Mary  lingered  long  among  these  tasteful  orna» 
ments  of  the  wealthy  Pompeians.  She  admired  their 
shape,  and  the  rich  yellow  color  of  the  gold,  and  she 
was  sorry  to  leave  the  room,  although  her  mother 
said  they  would  go  and  see  the  papyrus  from  Her- 
culaneum. 

"  When  the  library  at  Herculaneum  was  dis 
covered,"  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  nobody  knew  what  it 
was.  It  was  evidently  a  public  building,  for  there 
were  busts  and  statues  in  a  long  saloon,  and  it 
had  not  the  appearance  of  a  private  house.  Some 
black  lumps  were  found  arranged  in  rows,  but  no 
one  dreamed  that  they  were  scrolls,  until  a  man 
chanced  to  espy  some  little  lines  on  one,  which  he 
thought  looked  somewhat  like  letters.  It  was  soon 
found  that  these  scrolls  fell  in  pieces  when  any  one 
tried  to  unroll  them.  At  last  a  gentleman  in 
Naples  discovered  a  way  of  unrolling  them,  and 
since  that  time  a  great  many  have  been  opened 
and  read." 

"  And  what  were  they,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  were  works  in  Greek  that  had  not 'been 


MAKY   BKOWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM.  165 

known  before.  Some  of  them  have  been  pub 
lished." 

Mary  and  her  mother  now  entered  several  rooms 
in  which  the  blackened  scrolls  were  kept.  They 
were  framed  and  had  glass  over  them,  and  were 
hung  up  all  around  the  rooms,  like  pictures.  They 
looked  just  like  long  narrow  pieces  of  burnt  paper. 

"  They  are  a  great  deal  smaller  than  I  thought 
they  were,"  said  Mary. 

"  They  are  not  quite  a  foot  wide,"  replied  Mrs. 
Brown,  "  but  some  of  them  are  very  long.  Here  is 
the  longest  one.  I  should  judge  that  it  is  nearly 
twenty  feet  long.  There  are  forty  columns  of  writ 
ing  on  it." 

"  How  black  it  is,  mamma.  I  do  not  see  how 
people  can  read  it  at  all.  The  letters  look  as  if 
they  were  cut  into  it.  I  am  sure  I  should  never 
learn  to  read,  if  I  had  to  read  such  letters  as 
these." 

At  some  desks  in  the  rooms  sat  men,  engraving 
copies  of  the  scrolls.  One  man  was  copying  a  piece 
about  twice  as  large  as  a  page  of  this  book,  and 
Mary  ventured  to  ask  him  how  long  it  would  take 
him  to  do  it. 


166  MARY   BROWN   AT   THE   MUSEUM. 

"  One  month,  signorina,"  he  replied.  "  It  is  very 
slow  work." 

"  And  do  you  read  the  words  on  the  black  scrolls 
yourself  ?"  she  asked. 

"No,  signorina.  I  copy  from  this  paper,  on 
which  some  learned  man  has  copied  with  a  pen  the 
letters  and  words  that  are  on  the  papyrus.  After  I 
have  finished  my  engraving,  it  is  published.  A  good 
many  of  these  engravings'  make  a  book  such  as  you 
see  on  yonder  table." 

Mary  went  to  the  table,  and  the  guide  opened 
the  books,  and  showed  her  on  one  page  an  exact 
copy  of  a  part  of  the  scroll,  and  on  the  opposite 
page  a  translation  of  it. 

They  saw,  in  a  great  glass  case,  like  a  bookcase, 
some  scrolls  that  had  not  yet  been  unrolled.  They 
looked  like  short,  thick  sticks  of  charcoal,  and  were 
quite  as  hard.  Mary  wondered  that  any  of  them 
had  ever  been  opened  and  read. 

They  left  the  rooms  where  the  papyrus  scrolls 
were  kept,  and  went  into  those  which  contain  the 
earthen  dishes  taken  from  Pompeii.  They  were 
very  much  like  those  we  use  now-a-days,  and  Mary 


MAKY   BROWN    AT   THE   MUSEUM.  167 

pointed  out  to  her  mother  some  dishes  with  covers 
full  of  holes,  to  put  flower  stems  through. 

"  I  do  not  see  that  these  are  any  different  from 
the  ones  we  have  at  home,  mamma/'  she  said  ;  "  I 
feel  as  if  I  were  in  a  shop,  and  I  cannot  believe  that 
these  things  are  two  thousand  years  old." 

When  she  went  back  to  the  hotel,  she  took  a  little 
book  and  wrote  down  the  names  of  many  of  the 
things  she  had  seen,  for  she  was  afraid  she  should 
forget  some  of  them. 


168  MABY   BROWN    AT   HERCULANEOI. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  next  day  Mary  and  her  mother  went  to  Her- 
culaneum,  but  as  its  ruins  resemble  those  of  Pompeii, 
I  shall  not  trouble  my  readers  with  a  long  descrip 
tion  of  them. 

The  only  part  open  to  daylight  is  about  as  large 
as  a  block  of  buildings  in  New  York.  The  rest  is 
underground,  and  it  is  necessary  to  have  torches  in 
order  to  see  it.  To  go  through  it,  is  like  wandering 
in  a  great  dark  cellar,  and  as  the  town  of  Resina  is 
above  it,  it  is  full  of  pillars  to  hold  up  the  founda 
tions  of  the  houses. 

In  the  part  that  is  open  to  daylight,  there  are 
some  houses  painted  in  bright  colors,  like  those  at 
Pompeii,  and  in  the  peristyle  or  inner  court  of  one 
of  them,  there  is  a  garden  of  flowers  just  where  the 
old  garden  used  to  be  eighteen  hundred  years  ago. 


MARY   BROWN    AT   HEECULANEUM,  169 

An  old  man  picked  from  this  garden  a  fragrant  nose 
gay  of  pink  roses  and  rosemary,  and  said,  smilingly, 
as  he  handed  them  to  Mary  : 

"  These  are  ancient  flowers,  my  little  miss.  They 
grew  in  old  Herculaneum." 

When  Mary  reached  home  she  put  them  carefully 
away,  to  look  at  when  she  went  back  to  New 
York. 

"  Everything  in  Herculaneum  was  not  so  pleasant 
as  flower  gardens  are,"  said  the  guide,  "for  here, 
miss,  is  the  ruin  of  a  prison.  In  the  dungeon  into 
which  we  look  down,  some  skeletons  of  prisoners 
were  discovered,  and  you  can  still  see  the  iron  grat 
ings  that  covered  the  windows." 

"  How  dreadful  it  must  have  been,"  said  Mary, 
"  to  lie  in  a  prison  and  feel  the  ground  shake  under 
you  when  the  earthquakes  came." 

"  It  is  not  unlikely,"  added  Mrs.  Brown,  "  that 
the  poor  prisoners  did  not  know  what  killed  them  j 
but  they  must  have/known  by  the  cries  of  the  people 
outside  of  their  place  of  confinement,  that  some 
unusual  excitement  was  prevailing.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  the  jailer  went  to  tell  them  what  had 
occurred." 

15 


170  TRIP    TO    CASTEL-A-MARE. 

"  If  he  had  been  a  very  good  man  he  would  have 
gone  to  release  them,  mamma,  I  think." 

"  Perhaps  he  had  no  opportunity  to  do  so,  Mary  ; 
he  may  have  been  killed  before  he  had  time  to  go 
to  them." 

Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  soon  left  Herculaneum,  and 
took  the  railroad  to  Castel-a-niare.  The  road  lies 
along  the  Bay,  and  the  prospect  from  it  is  beauti 
ful. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "  I  do  not  know  where 
to  look  ;  everything  is  so  novel  and  charming.  Off 
there  in  the  distance  stands  the  fairy-land,  that 
people  call  Capri,  and  between  us  and  it  how  many 
different  colors  the  water  has.  Do  look  !" 

"I  see,"  replied  Mrs.  Brown.  "It  is  a  beautiful 
view.  The  water  is  a  pale,  bluish  white  near  the 
coast,  and  beyond  there  is  a  strip  of  apple-green, 
and  beyond  that  a  strip  of  purple,  and  then  apple- 
green  again,  and  then  more  purple." 

"  Yes,  mamma,  and  then,  beyond  the  purple, 
there  is  a  great  patch  of  sunlight,  and  it  is  just  at 
the  foot  of  Capri.  How  queer  it  is  that  the  sun 
shines  there  when  it  does  not  here." 

"  There  is  a  great  mass  of  clouds  between  us  and 


TEIP   TO    CASTEL-A-MAKE.  171 

the  sun,  but  the  bright  sunlight  still  falls  in  streaks 
on  the  water  in  the  distance." 

"  And,  mamma,  the  clouds  are  white  and  laven 
der  color.  All  along  the  horizon  there  are  no  clouds, 
and  the  sky  is  a  pale  salmon  color.  Oh,  mamma, 
what  lovely  skies  we  see  here  at  Naples  !" 

"  And  look  at  the  beach  along  which  we  are  rid 
ing.  It  looks  as  if  it  were  made  of  ashes  from 
Vesuvius.  See  the  sudden  projections  and  little  pro 
montories  formed  by  streams  of  lava  stopped  in  mid- 
course  by  cooling." 

"  The  side  toward  the  water  looks  just  like  the 
flat  perpendicular  surfaces,  that  we  said  looked  like 
stone  walls  up  on  Vesuvius,"  said  Mary.  "  How 
dark  the  rooks  are,  almost  black.  The  waves  dash 
up  against  them  as  if  they  did  not  like  them.  Per 
haps  the  waves  wish  the  lava  had  stayed  up  in 
Vesuvius." 

"What  a  beautiful  scene  we  are  looking  at, 
Mary  ;  I  hope  you  will  always  remember  it.  The 
sky,  the  Bay,  the  boats  with  their  lateen  sails,  the 
hills,  the  islands,  Vesuvius  itself,  the  trees,  the 
shores,  the  people,  remind  us  of  beautiful  pictures. 
See  those  men  pulling  the  boats  to  the  shore.  Theii 


172  TRIP   TO   CASTEL-A.-MARE. 

trowsers  are  tucked  up  high  on  the  thigh,  and  they 
wade  deep  in  the  water  ;  others  are  carrying  bur 
dens  to  the  boats  that  are  waiting  to  be  laden. 
Everything  here  looks  like  a  picture." 

"  But,  mamma,  I  should  be  afraid  to  live  here,  for 
though  everything  is  so  beautiful,  there  stands  grim 
old  Vesuvius,  looking  down  on  all  the  little  towns, 
and  at  all  the  coast,  and  at  the  people  who  are  at 
work,  or  enjoying  themselves,  and  he  says  to  him 
self,  '  If  I  only  chose,  how  quickly  I  could  run  over 
everything  and  kill  everybody.'  " 

"  You  speak  of  him  as  if  he  had  all  the  power  in 
his  own  hands.  It  is  true  that  he  sits  like  a  king- 
on  his  throne,  with  a  circlet  of  clouds  for  a  crown, 
and  it  is  really  a  golden  crown  set  with  rubies  and 
amethysts  at  sunset  ;  and  it  is  true  that  the  grasp  of 
his  fiery  hand  would  destroy  man  and  his  fields,  and 
his  home,  but  Vesuvius  is  only  a  servant  of  God, 
and  can  only  do  His  bidding." 

"  Oh,  I  know  that,  mamma.  But  would  you  like 
to  live  in  one  of  the  little  towns  at  the  foot  of  the 
volcano  ?  I  should  not." 

"  Neither  should  I,  my  child.  Nor  would  I  like 
to  live  in  Switzerland,  where  the  terrible  land- 


THE   DRIVE   TO    SOKBENTO.  173 

slides  take  place,  and  yet  people  become  accustomed 
to  living  in  these  dangerous  places.  But  see  the 
little  stream  we  are  crossing.  It  is  the  Sarno. 
Where  do  you  think  it  comes  from  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  do  not  know,  mamma.  It  looks  like  a 
canal,  it  is  so  narrow,  and  the  sides  are  so  straight. 
What  a  full  little  river  it  is." 

"  It  flows  through  Pompeii,  Mary.  Perhaps  you 
remember  a  cistern  in  the  temple  of  Isis.  This 
stream  fills  that  cistern." 

An  hour's  ride  in  the  rail  car  brought  Mrs.  Brown 
and  her  daughter  to  Castel-a-mare,  and*  when  they 
alighted  from  the  cars  they  were  surrounded  by 
hordes  of  men  and  boys,  who  offered  to  carry  their 
satchels  and  bundles,  to  furnish  them  with  a  car 
riage  to  take  them  to  a  hotel  or  to  convey 
them  to  Sorrento,  or,  in  short,  to  do  anything 
they  desired.  Donkeys,  wearing  saddles  covered 
with  pink  calico,  stood  along  the  road,  and 
their  keepers  asked  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  whether 
they  would  take  a  ride  among  the  hills.  Mary 
looked  up  the  steep  ascent  and  thought  how  much 
she  should  like  to  accept  their  invitation,  but  it  was 
the  middle  of  the  afternoon,  and  her  mother  said 


174:  THE   DKIVE   TO    SOKKENTO. 

they  must  hasten  on  to  reach  Sorrento  before 
night. 

They  soon  engaged  a  coachman  to  take  them  to 
Sorrento,  and  drove  through  the  little  town  of 
Castel-a-uiare  at  a  brisk  rate.  The  driver  cracked' 
his  whip,  and  seemed  in  good  spirits  at  having 
obtained  employment,  but  his  companions,  who  had 
not  been  so  fortunate,  ran  after  him,  and  tried  to 
beat  his  horse.  In  the  doorways  of  the  houses  stood 
women  and  girls,  spinning  with  the  old  fashioned 
distaff,  holding  it  aloft  in  one  hand  while  they 
twirled  the^  spindle  with  the  other.  Signs,  hung  out 
along  the  street,  advertised  mineral  baths,  or  told 
that  donkeys  could  be  hired  for  a  ride  among  the 
mountains.  Up  behind  the  road,  rose  the  hills,  and 
villas  nestled  in  among  them,  commanding  a  fine 
view  of  the  beautiful  blue  Bay.  Hither  foreigners 
come  to  pass  the  summer  months. 

They  drove  at  a  rapid  pace  out  of  Castel-a-mare, 
and  along  the  shore,  the  road  winding  around  the 
rocks,  and  looking  down  upon  the  steep  banks  that 
descended  to  the  water.  The  slanting  rays  of  the 
declining  sun  brightened  the  cliffs  above  and  the 
banks  below.  The  eye  knew  not  where  to  rest, 
but  roved  from  mossy  bank  to  tree,  from  tree  to 


THE   DRIVE   TO   SORRENTO.  175 

sky,  to  wave,  to  isle,  and  to  the  amber  West.  Every 
spot  was  full  of  beauty.  Upon  the  wide,  still  Bay, 
where  the  sunlight  fell  broadly,  one  great  cloud 
threw  a  violet  colored  shadow,  which  looked  strange 
in  the  midst  of  such  a  sea  of  light.  The  promon 
tories  that  jutted  out  into  the  Bay  were  covered 
with  fresh  green  grass.  Below  them,  the  blue  waters 
crept  to  the  coast  and  dashed  themselves  into  snowy 
foam. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  cried  Mary,  "  do  look  at  every 
thing  1  See  how  green  the  moss  is  ;  look  at  those 
trailing  vines,  and  those  creeping  plants,  and  see 
what  a  deep  brown  the  earth  is  where  it  shows 
through.  How  smooth  the  stones  are,  and  how  they 
are  all  overgrown  with  vegetation.  See  that  pine 
tree  with  ivy  running  up  its  trunk,  and  the  trees 
that  are  bare  of  leaves  look  beautiful,  too,  for  the 
sunlight  makes  one  side  of  them  so  yellow." 

"  Yes,  replied  Mrs.  Brown,"  the  trunks  and 
branches,  and  twigs  of  the  leafless  trees  look  as  if 
inlaid  on  one  side  with  gold.  But  look  up,  Mary, 
see  that  rope  !" 

"  From  the  cliffs  above  them  a  rope  was  stretched 
to  the  cliff  on  the  top  of  which  their  road  lay,  and 
down  this  rope  sped  a  basket,  laden  with  hay.  On 


THE    SAIL   TO   CAPRI. 

the  cliff  stood  a  group  of  peasants  who  had  been 
mowing  on  the  high  meadows,  and  they  sent  their 
load  of  hay  down  the  rope  to  a  group  of  fellow- 
laborers,  waiting  beside  the  road  to  receive  it.  In  a 
moment  another  load  went  down. 

"  How  pretty/'  said  Mrs.  Brown,  "  the  green 
basket-load  looks  against  the  blue  sky  and  brown 
cliffs." 

Many  carriages  dashed  by  them  or  followed  in 
their  rear,  for  this  beautiful  road  from  Castel-a-mare 
to  Sorrento  is  a  favorite  drive.  They  passed 
through  several  little  towns,  and  finally  approached 
Sorrento.  The  town  is  a  collection  of  white  houses, 
sprinkled  over  a  plain. 

Seated  at  the  window  of  their  hotel,  Mary  looked 
across  the  Bay  over  at.  Vesuvius,  but  the  day  had 
been  a  fatiguing  one,  and  her  eyes  soon  drooped. 
She  gladly  followed  her  mother's  advice,  and  went 
to  bed,  where  she  dreamed  of  the  afternoon's  drive, 
the  nosegay  from  the  old  town  of  Eerculaneum  and 
the  Blue  Grotto  of  Capri. 

In  the  morning,  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  took  a 
sail-boat  to  go  to  Capri,  for  they  wished  to  see  the 
Blue  Grotto,  so  famous  for  its  beautiful  color,  about 


THE    SAIL    TO    CAPRI.  177 

which  Mrs.  Brown  told  Mary  in  the  first  chapter  of 
this  book. 

The  sea  tossed  a  good  deal,  and  threw  up  white 
caps,  but  the  wind  was  favorable,  and  in  a  little 
more  than  an  hour  they  landed  at  Capri. 

As  I  said,  the  sea  was  rough,  and  it  rolled  up  in 
great  waves  along  the  shore  of  the  island.  When 
the  boat  approached  the  land,  the  boatmen  took 
down  the  sail  and  rowed  gently  with  their  oars. 
They  were  trying  to  get  on  the  top  of  a  wave,  so 
that  when  it  rolled  upon  the  shore,  it  might  carry 
the  boat  up  with  it,  and  land  it  on  the  sand.  At  last 
they  succeeded,  and  rode  swiftly  along  upon  the  surf. 

A  number  of  men  and  women  and  children 
gathered  on  the  beach  to  see  them  land.  Before 
Mary  knew  what  he  was  going  to  do,  a  man  plunged 
from  the  shore  into  the  water  and  picked  her  out  of 
the  boat.  Another  one  followed  him,  and  took  her 
mother  in  his  arms,  and  they  found  themselves,  at 
last,  standing  safe  and  sound  on  a  dry  part  of  the 
beach.  The  boat,  too,  was  high  up  on  the  shore, 
for  several  men  had  caught  a  rope,  which  the  boat 
men  threw  from  it,  and  had  drawn  it  up  out  of  the 
water. 


178  MARY   BBOWN    AT    CArKI. 

The  women  brought  papers  full  of  shells  and  little 
bits  of  coral,  which  they  had  picked  up  on  the  beach, 
and  offered  them  to  Mrs.  Brown  for  sale,  while  the 
children  gathered  about  Mary  and  her  mother,  and 
looked  at  them,  crying  out,  "  forestieri !  forestieri  1" 
which  means  "  strangers  !  strangers  !" 

As  they  walked  up  to  the  hotel,  which  is  on  a 
cliff  just  above  the  beach,  four  women  followed 
them,  leading  two  little  donkeys  with  saddles  upon 
them. 

"  Perhaps,"  said  one  of  the  women  to  Mrs.  Brown, 
"  perhaps  when  the  ladies  have  rested  they  would 
like  to  take  a  ride  up  on  the  hills,  for  to-day  the 
sea  is  too  rough  for  them  to  go  to  the  Grotto." 

"  Oh,"  said  Mary  in  a  whisper  to  her  mother, 
"  how  pleasant  that  would  be  !" 

"  The  hill  is  very  steep,  my  dear,  and  it  would 
doubtless  tire  us  very  much  to  walk,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown.  Then,  turning  to  the  woman  she  added, 
"we  will  hire  the  donkeys,  and  go  when  we  have 
rested  about  an  hour." 

"  We  shall  be  ready  at  any  moment,"  they 
replied  ;  and  Mary  and  her  mother  entered  the 

totel: 


MAKY   BKOWN   AT   CAPKI.  179 

The  women  dropped  the  bridles  of  the  donkeys, 
and  seated  themselves  on  a  stone  in  front  of  the 
house,  while  the  animals  ate  the  scanty  herbage 
which  grew  along  the  roadside. 

A  great  wood  fire  was  burning  in  the  broad 
chimney  of  the  dining-room  of  the  hotel,  and  Mary 
and  her  mother  stood  before  it  and  dried  their 
dresses,  which  were  quite  damp  with  spray.  They 
then  lay  down  and  slept  for  an  hour,  and  after  they 
had  dined  went  to  the  door  to  see  if  the  donkeys 
had  come.  They  were  surprised  to  see  the  women 
and  the  animals  just  where  they  had  left  them. 

"  How  long  have  you  been  waiting  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brown. 

"  Oh,  signora,  we  have  been  here  all  the  time  ; 
we  have  riot  been  away  since  you  entered  the  hotel," 
answered  one  of  the  women.  "  Is  my  little  lady 
ready  ?"  she  added. 

Mary  and  Mrs.  Brown  put  on  their  bonnets,  and 
one  of  the  women,  whose  name  was  Giuseppina, 
lifted  Mary  up  on  the  back  of  one  of  the  donkeys. 
"  Do  not  be  afraid,  signorina,"  she  said,  "  the  donkey 
is  very  gentle,  and  I  shall  lead  him  by  the  bridle." 

"  I  do  not  think  I  shall  be  afraid,"  said  Mary, 


180         MAKY  BROWN  AT  CAPEI. 

but  she  cast  a  laughing  glance  towards  her 
mother,  for  she  remembered  how  frightened  she 
was  when  the  saddle  turned  on  her  way  up 
Vesuvius. 

Giuseppina  seized  the  donkey's  bridle,  and  another 
woman  named  Annina  went  behind  him  with  a  stick. 
Instead  of  beating  the  donkey,  she  poked  him  with 
the  end  of  the  stick  when  she  wanted  him  to  hasten 
his  pace.  Mrs.  Brown  went  in  front  of  Mary,  and 
there  were  also  two  women  with  her  donkey. 

Capri  is  a  very  singular  island.  It  is  made  up  of 
a  number  of  hills,  and  there  is  not  a  level  spot  to  be 
found  on  the  whole  eastern  end  of  it.  There  is  no 
use  for  carriages  on  the  island,  for  there  are  no 
broad  roads.  Only  little  narrow  paths  for  the  don 
keys  are  made  on  the  steep  hillsides.  These  paths 
are  very  stony,  and  Mary  thought  that  riding  here 
was  very  much  like  riding  up  stairs. 

"But  it  is  not  so  steep  as  the  cone  at  Vesuvius," 
she  added  ;  "and  I  am  sure  I  would  rather  go  up 
on  the  donkey's  back  than  tire  myself  out  by  going 
on  my  feet." 

"  Do  you  see  those  ruins  on  the  top  of  the  hill  we 
are  going  up  ?"  asked  her  mother. 


HAKY   BEOWN   AT   CAPEI.  *        181 

"  Oh,  yes,  mamma  ;  what  are  they  ?" 

"  They  are  the  ruins  of  a  castle  that  belonged  to 
•  Tiberius,  my  child.  The  Emperor  Tiberius  is  said 
to  have  built  twelve  castles  on  this  island  ;  and 
there  are  ruins  of  two  more  of  them  on  the  two  hills 
yonder." 

"  I  cannot  imagine  what  he  wanted  so  many 
castles  for,"  said  Mary. 

"  He  was  a  very  cruel  man,"  said  Mrs.  Brown, 
"  and  there  is  a  precipice  here,  overhanging  the  sea, 
from  which,  it  is  said,  he  threw  those  persons  he  did 
not  like." 

"  Did  it  kill  them,  mamma  ?" 

"  Oh  yes,  my  child.  The  precipice  is  very 
lofty." 

"  What  a  wicked  man  1" 

"  Can  you  tell  me  when  he  lived,  Mary  ?" 

"  Let  me  see  ;  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Caligula — 
he  was  the  successor  of  Augustus,  mamma,  and 
it  was  during  his  reign  that  Christ  was  cruci 
fied." 

"I  am  glad  to  see  that  you  have  so  good  a 
memory,  my  daughter." 

Just  then  they  came  to  a  very  steep  ascent,  and 
16 


182  MARY   BKOWN   AT   CAPEI. 

Mary's  donkey  stopped.  Giuseppina  pulled  hard 
at  the  bridle,  and  Anuina  poked  him  with  her  stick. 
They  both  shouted  to  him  at  the  top  of  their  voices 
to  go  on,  but  all  in  vain.  He  would  not  move. 
The  women  who  were  with  Mrs.  Brown  left  her,  and 
ran  back  to  give  assistance.  They  doubled  up 
their  fists,  and  running  at  the  patient  animal,  dealt 
him  blows  in  the  ribs.  They  pulled  his  ears,  but  he 
still  stood  firm,  bracing  himself  against  all  their 
efforts  to  drag  him  forward.  Mrs.  Brown  stopped 
her  donkey  and  sat  looking  Iback  to  watch  the  sin 
gular  scene.  Mary  was  so  much  amused  by  the 
exertions  of  the  women,  and  the  obstinacy  of  the 
donkey,  that  she  almost  fell  off  her  seat  with 
laughter. 

"They  do  not  seem  to  hurt  him  at  all,  mamma/' 
she  said,  as  soon  as  she  could  speak.  "  If  they  did 
hurt  him,  I  am  sure  he  would  go  on,  and  besides,  if 
they  hurt  him  I  should  feel  very  sorry  for  him, 
instead  of  laughing  as  I  do." 

"  He  seems  to  have  made  up  his  mind  not  to 
move,"  said  her  mother  ;  but  just  at  that  moment 
his  obstinacy  gave  way,  and  he  started  on. 

"  I  thought  when  we  left  the  hotel,"  said  Mary, 


MARY   BROWN   AT    CAPRI.  183 

"  that  there  was  no  use  in  having  two  women  to 
take  care  of  each  donkey,  but  I  begin  to  think  they 
understand  their  own  business  better  than  I." 

Gradually  ascending,  they  came  to  a  little  stone 
hut,  where  the  women  lifted  Mary  from  her  donkey, 
and  said  that  the  animals  would  rest  while  the  ladies 
walked  up  to  the  summit  of  the  hill. 

"  Up  there,  signorina,"  said  Giuseppina,  pointing 
upwards,  "you  will  see  the  ruins  of  one  of  the 
palaces  of  the  great  Emperor  Tiberius,  and,  still 
farther  up,  there  lives  an  old  hermit,  who  is  very 
fond  of  visitors." 

"  Oh,  mother,"  cried  Mary,  "  can  we  go  and  see 
the  hermit  ?  How  strange  it  will  seem  to  see  one. 
I  have  read  about  them  in  my  books,  but  I  never 
thought  I  should  see  one." 

Giuseppina  and  Annina  accompanied  Mrs.  Brown 
and  Mary  up  to  the  ruins.  They  could  trace  where 
the  different  rooms  of  the  palace  had  been,  and 
Mary  picked  up  some  little  pieces  of  marble  that 
had  formed  part  of  the  mosaic  pavement.  She  put 
them  into  her  pocket  and  said,  laughingly,  "  I 
shall  have  a  little  museum  when  I  get  home,  mam 
ma." 


184  MARY   BROWN    AT   CAPRI. 

f 

After  leaving  the  ruins,  they  climbed  higher  up 
the  hill  and  came  into  a  pretty  little  garden  where 
there  were  many  flowers  in  blossom.  Mary  asked 
whose  flowers  they  were. 

11  They  belong  to  the  good  hermit,"  replied 
Giuseppina,  and  looked  up  to  a  rock  which  over 
hung  the  garden.  Mary  followed  the  direction  of 
her  eyes  and  saw,  standing  on  the  rock,  an  old  man, 
dressed  in  a  long  black  gown.  He  had  a  staff  in  his 
hand,  and  sandals  on  his  feet.  A  long  white  beard 
fell  down  over  his  breast,  and  reached  almost  to  his 
waist.  On  his  head  he  wore  a  small  black  skull 
cap,  and  only  a  few  grey  hairs  were  visible  about  his 
temples.  He  smiled  kindly  at  Mary  as  she  looked 
up,  and  she  made  a  courtesy  to  him  and  said, 
"  Buon  giorno" 

He  came  down  from  the  rock  and  gathered  some 
flowers  out  of  his  garden,  and  gave  them  to  Mary. 

"  Will  you  and  your  mother,  my  daughter,  come 
up  and  look  at  the  old  hermit's  home  ?"  he  asked  ; 
"  I  live  in  a  small  house,  it  is  true,  but  I  love  to 
see  strangers  who  have  come  from  foreign  lands. 
What  is  your  native  land,  my  child  ?" 

"  We  come  from  America,  sir,"  said  Mary. 


MARY  BROWN  AT  CAPRI.         185 

"  From  America  !"  he  repeated,  in  surprise. 
"  You  have  made  a  long  journey  for  so  young  a 
lady.  Do  you  like  Italy  ?" 

"  Very  much  indeed,"  replied  Mary,  with  bright 
ening  eyes. 

They  soon  reached  the  hermit's  hut.  It  was  of 
stone  ;  he  led  them  into  it,  and  showed  them  the 
little  kitchen  where  he  cooked  his  food,  and  the 
little  bedroom  where  he  slept. 

"Do  you  never  get  lonely?"  Mary  ventured  to 
ask. 

"  Not  in  pleasant  weather,  my  daughter,"  he 
replied,  "  for  then  I  can  sit  out  of  doors  and  look 
down  on  the  Bay  and  enjoy  myself.  But  when  it  is 
stormy,  it  is  cold  up  on  this  high  hill,  and  I  am 
obliged  to  keep  within  doors." 

"  And  how  do  you  occupy  yourself  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brown. 

"  Oh,"  he  answered,  smiling,  "  I  say  my  prayers 
and  read  some  holy  books,  and  then  I  have  a  little 
box  of  paints,  and  I  paint  flies,  and  flowers,  and 
children.  I  will  show  you  some  of  them  ;"  and  he 
took  them  into  his  bedroom,  and  asked  them  to  sit 
down  on  the  bed,  for  there  were  no  chairs  in  the 


186  MART  BEOWN   AT   CAPKI. 

room.  He  then  took  a  small  portfolio  from  a  box, 
and  showed  them  a  great  many  pictures.  They 
were  not  well  painted,  but  they  had  served  to  amuse 
the  hermit  in  his  lonely  hours.  Some  of  them  were 
pictures  of  little  girls  and  boys,  holding  roses  in 
their  hands.  Others  represented  butterflies  and 
bees,  hovering  over  flowers.  There  were  also  draw 
ings  of  flies  and  worms.  The  hermit  gave  Mary  a 
little  picture  of  a  girl  reading  a  book.  He  took  them 
out  to  the  rock  in  front  of  his  house,  and  showed 
them  what  a  Ibeautiful  view  he  had  of  Vesuvius  and 
all  the  shore  of  the  Bay  of  Naples. 

Mary  and  her  mother  were  delighted  with  the 
blue  waters  and  the  distant  shores.  When  they 
left  the  hermit,  Mrs.  Brown  slipped  some  coins  into 
his  hand,  and  thanked  him  for  his  hospitality.  He 
brought  out  a  large  book  and  a  pen,  and  asked 
them  to  write  their  names  in  it,  for,  he  said,  he  kept 
the  names  of  all  the  people  who  visited  him. 

Mary  and  her  mother  went  down  the  hill  to  the 
place  where  they  had  left  their  donkeys.  They  saw 
the  terrible  precipice  from  which  Tiberius  threw 
those  who  had  offended  him. 

"  Oh,  mamma,"  said  Mary,  as  she  looked  from  its 


MARY  BROWN  AT  CAPRI.        187 

top,  "  do  let  me  take  hold  of  your  hand,  for  it 
makes  me  dizzy  to  look  so  far  down.  Those  who 
were  thrown  from  here  must  have  fallen  on  the 
rocks  that  stick  up  out  of  the  water  and  have  been 
dashed  to  pieces.  And  then,  I  suppose,  the  waters 
swept  their  bodies  away  and  drowned  them." 

"It  is  terrible  to  think  of  it,  my  dear,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown.  "  Tiberius  was  a  heathen,  and  had  no  fear 
of  offending  God  by  his  cruelties.  He  knew  nothing 
about  the  Christian  law  which  teaches  us  to  love 
one  another."  , 

"  See,  mamma,  what  pretty  blue  flowers  there 
are  growing  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice.  There  is 
something  pretty  about  it,  after  all." 

Giuseppina  saw  Mary  look  at  the  flowers,  and 
she  went  carefully  to  the  edge,  and,  stooping, 
picked  some  for  her.  They  were  intensely  blue. 
Mary  put  them  into  the  little  book  she  carried  in 
her  pocket. 

"  I  wonder,  mamma,  whether  the  '  Blue  Grotto ' 
is  as  blue  as  these  flowers,"  she  said. 

"  I  hope  we  shall  see  to-morrow,"  replied  her 
mother,  and  they  went  back  to  the  hotel. 


188  VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE   GROTTO. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE  next  morning  the  sky  was  overcast. 

"  No  Blue  Grotto  to-day,  I  fear,"  said  Mary  ; 
"  and,  oh,"  she  added,  looking  out  of  the  window, 
"  the  sea  is  quite  rough.  What  shall  we  do  ?" 

"  We  will  wait  till  the  weather  becomes  pleasant 
enough  for  us  to  see  the  grotto,"  replied  Mrs. 
Brown.  "  We  should  not  like  to  leave  Capri  with 
out  seeing  it.  It  is  now  only  six  o'clock.  You  can 
run  down  to  the  beach,  and  gather  shells  till  break 
fast  time,  and  after  breakfast,  perhaps,  the  sea  will 
become  smooth,  and  the  sun  will  shine." 

On  the  beach  Mary  met  several  little  children, 
who  were  busy  gathering  very  small,  transparent 
fishes,  which  the  waves  cast  up  on  the  sand. 

"  Do  you  eat  them  ?"  she  asked. 

"No,  signorina,"  they  replied,  laughing;    "we 


VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE   GROTTO.  189 

gather  them  for  the  men  to  use  as  bait.    They  catch 
big  fishes  with  them." 

"  What  pretty  little  things  they  are,"  said  Mary  ; 
"  I  can  almost  see  through  them." 

She  could  not  talk  much  with  the  children, 
because  she  did  not  speak  Italian  very  well,  and 
they  did  not  pronounce  in  the  way  she  was  accus 
tomed  to  hear.  They  did  not  speak  pure  Italian, 
but  a  kind  of  dialect,  or  incorrect  form  of  the  lan 
guage. 

She  found  some  very  pretty  little  shells,  but  all 
the  larger  ones  were  broken  by  being*  ground  up 
with  the  pebbles  on  the  beach.  She  looked  at  the 
broken  shells  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  for  she 
could  see  by  them  how  shells  were  made  in  the 
inside,  and  she  had  always  wanted  to  know.  She 
put  a  great  many  into  her  pocket  to  carry  home  to 
New  York,  for  she  meant  to  make  a  little  museum 
of  the  things  she  gathered  in  Europe  for  her  school 
mates  to  look  at.  She  found  also  some  pieces  of 
the  bone  of  cuttle-fish,  such  as  we  give  to  canary 
birds  to  sharpen  their  bills  on.  Now  and  then  she 
discovered  a  very  small  bit  of  red  coral  lying 
among  the  pebbles.  It  surprised  her  to  find  a 


190  VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE    GROTTO. 

fragment  of  white  or  colored  marble  here  and 
there,  but  on  showing  them  to  the  children  she 
learned  that  they  came  from  the  ruins  along  the 
shore,  and  had  been  washed  about  in  the  water, 
and  ground  up  with  the  pebbles  and  shells  until 
they  had  become  round  and  smooth. 

At  breakfast  she  gave  her  mother  an  animated 
account  of  her  ramble,  and  showed  her  the  shells 
and  stones  she  had  gathered.  Before  they  left  the 
table  the  keeper  of  the  hotel  came  into  the  room, 
and  said  that  the  wind  had  gone  down,  and  that 
the  sun  was  beginning  to  shine. 

"  And,"  he  added,  "  I  have  ordered  the  boatmen 
to  be  ready  in  an  hour  to  take  you  to  the  Grotto." 

When  Mary  and  her  mother  were  seated  in  the 
boat,  Mary  asked  why  they  had  not  taken  a  large 
boat  like  that  in  which  they  came  from  Sorrento. 

"  You  know,  my  dear,"  replied  her  mother,  "  that 
the  entrance  to  the  Grotto  is  very  low  and  narrow. 
The  water  dashes  up  into  it  all  the  time.  There  is 
not  room  for  a  large  boat  to  enter." 

"  I  do  not  see,"  said  Mary,  "  how  the  Grotto  was 
ever  found,  if  the  entrance  is  so  small.  I  should 
not  suppose  any  one  would  have  thought  of  going  in." 


VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE   GROTTO.  191 

"There  is  a  tradition  that  a  German  artist,  in 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  while  swimming, 
entered  the  Grotto  by  accident,  and  being  charmed 
by  its  beauty,  reported  it  to  others.  But  it  is  pro 
bable  that  it  was  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
island  long  before.  It  is  possible  that  its  existence 
may  have  been  forgotten  for  a  time.  There  are 
some  traces  of  its  having  been  used  for  a  bath  in 
ancient  times." 

Mary  was  delighted  with  the  motion  of  the  boat 
as  it  rose  and  fell  on  the  unquiet  sea.  They  passed 
between  little  rocks — which  she  said  would  make 
pretty  islands  for  dolls  to  live  on — and,  keeping  close 
to  the  shore,  made  their  way  along  the  northern 
side  of  Capri.  Precipitous  rocky  heights  rose  on 
their  left,  and  Mary  said  that  the  rock  looked  as  if 
it  had  been  lava,  and  had  cooled. 

"  But  are  we  not  near  the  Grotto  ?"  she  asked. 
"  See  that  hole  close  to  the  water's  edge  ;  is  not 
that  its  entrance  ?" 

"Oh,  no,  signorina,"  said  one  of  the  boatmen, 
who  saw  her  point  to  the  hole  ;  "  there  are  a  great 
many  such  holes  as  that  along  this  shore,  but  the 
Grotta  Azzurra  is  some  distance  from  us  yet." 


192  VISIT  TO  THE  BLUE   GROTTO. 

"  Why,  mamma  !"  called  out  Mary,  suddenly, 
"  do  look  at  the  foot  of  these  precipices.  All  along 
where  the  water  washes  their  base,  there  is  some 
thing  so  beautifully  red.  I  do  believe  it  is  coral. 
Does  coral  grow  all  along  on  the  rocks  under  the 
water  ?" 

Mrs.  Brown  looked  where  Mary  pointed,  and  saw 
just  under  the  water's  edge  a  line  of  red,  much  the 
color  of  coral,  only  more  brilliant.  In  contrast 
with  the  deep  blue  waves  and  the  brown  rocks,  it 
looked  beautiful  indeed. 

"  What  is  that  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Brown  of  the  boat 
men. 

"  It  is  a  weed  that  clings  to  the  rocks,  signora. 
It  looks  like  coral,  but  it  falls  to  pieces  in  your 
hand  if  you  gather  it.  Moreover,  it  is  not  easy  to 
detach  it  from  the  rocks,  and  our  boat  could  not 
approach  near  enough  to  them  to  get  any  without 
danger  of  being  dashed  against  them." 

Mary  was  sorry  that  she  could  not  get  some  of 
the  beautiful  weed.  "  If  I  cannot  carry  any  of  it 
home  with  me,"  she  said,  "  I  can  at  least  remember 
about  it.  It  is  easy  to  recollect  that  it  was  the 
color  of  red  coral,  only  a  good  deal  more  brilliant." 


VISIT   TO   THfc   BLUE    GKOTTO.  193 

Mary  sat  gazing  at  the  lofty  rooks  and  the  blue 
sky  above,  and  the  coral-like  weed  and  the  dashing 
waves  below.  Suddenly,  one  of  the  boatmen  turned 
to  her,  and  said  : 

"  Yonder  is  the  opening  to  the  Grotto,  signorina. 
You  must  crouch  down  in  the  boat,  and  you,  sig- 
nora,"  he  added,  addressing  Mrs.  Brown,  "  will 
please  lie  quite  down  on  the  floor." 

Mary  and  her  mother  did  as  they  were  directed, 
but  they  kept  their  eyes  open  and  looked  up  to  see 
how  they  passed  into  the  Grotto.  A  few  strokes  of 
the  oars  brought  the  boat  to  the  entrance  ;  then  the 
men  threw  the  oars  down  and,  stooping  low,  in 
order  that  their  heads  might  not  strike  against  the 
stony  doorway,  seized  on  the  rocks  with  their 
hands,  and  so  guided  the  boat  under  the  low  open 
ing.  The  waves  that  dashed  up  through  the  en 
trance,  bore  the  boat  gently  in. 

Mary  felt  a  thrill  of  terror  when  she  saw  how- 
narrow  and  low  the  rocky  doorway  was  ;  but  in  a 
moment  she  forgot  her  fears  and  sat  erect,  breath 
less  with  astonishment.  They  had  glided  into  a 
vast  chamber,  whose  floor  was  of  calm,  blue,  trans 
parent  water,  and  whose  arching  roof  was  upheld 
11 


194:  VISIT   10   TIIK    BLUE    GKOTTO. 

by  natural  columns  of  stone.  Below  them,  the 
water  was  a  light,  bright  blue  ;  above  them,  the 
ceiling  was  tinged  with  the  same  beautiful  color. 
Around  the  base  of  the  chamber,  where  the  water 
met  the  walls,  there  was  a  line  of  deep,  bright  red 
sea-weecl.  No  sound  disturbed  the  stillness  of  the 
place,  save  the  murmur  of  the  waves  that  dashed 
from  without  against  the  narrow  entrance. 

For  a  time  no  one  spoke.  At  last  Mary  said  in  a 
whisper  :  "  Is  it  not  beautiful,  mamma  ?" 

"  Beautiful  indeed,"  replied  her  mother.  "  Is  it 
not  like  fairy-land,  Mary  ?" 

"  That  is  just  what  I  was  thinking,  mamma. 
What  does  make  it  so  blue  ?" 

"  It  is  probable  that  the  deep  blue  of  the  water 
outside  of  the  Grotto  is  reflected  in  here  through 
the  little  doorway,  just  as  a  buttercup,  held  under 
your  chin,  will  make  your  chin  look  yellow." 

"  Who  built  the  columns  that  reach  up  to  the 
roof,  mamma  ?" 

"  They  are  natural  formations  of  the  rock,  Mary. 
No  human  hand  built  them.  God  made  them  when 
He  made  this  Grotto.  Though  it  looks  so  much 
like  a  work  of  man,  it  was  entirely  built  by  God." 


VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE   GKOTTO.  195 

"  No  wonder  it  is  so  beautiful  then,"  said  Mary, 
in  a  low  voice. 

The  rowers  now  took  their  oars  and  rowed  the 
boat  around  the  walls  of  the  chamber  and  into  the 
distant  parts  of  the  cave.  There  one  could  discern 
columns  and  arches  which  opened  the  way  into 
rooms  beyond,  and  Mary  said  she  would  like  to 
explore  them. 

"  That  we  cannot  do,"  said  her  mother.  "  There 
are  several  apartments  adjoining  the  large  room  we 
are  in.  It  is  supposed  that  this  beautiful  Grotto 
was  used  for  a  bath  in  ancient  days,  and  it  is  sur 
mised  that  there  was  once  a  passage  from  it  up 
through  the  earth  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
island." 

The  boatmen  motioned  to  Mary  to  put  her  hand 
into  the  water.  She  did  so,  and  it  became  a  beau 
tiful  light  blue.  She  was  surprised  and  delighted, 
and  she  bared  her  arm  and  thrust  it  in  up  to  the 
elbow. 

"  Oh,  what  a  lovely  color,"  she  cried.  "  This  is  a 
fairy  place  indeed." 

She  dipped  her  handkerchief  into  the  water, 
and  that,  too,  grew  blue,  and  Mary  said  as  she  drew 


196  VISIT   TO   THE   BLUE    GKOTTO. 

it  out,  that  she  wished  it  would  keep  its  color  till 
she  got  back  to  New  York. 

"  The  water  does  not  really  dye  it,  you  know,  my 
dear,"  said  her  mother  ;  "  it  only  looks  so  while  it  is 
in  the  water." 

"  I  know  it,  mamma.  And  do  look  there ! 
There  goes  a  fish,  and  he  is  as  blue  as  my  arm  was. 
I  wonder  if  he  knows  how  pretty  he  looks.  What 
a  pretty  place  this  must  have  been  to  bathe  in, 
though  I  think  I  should  have  been  afraid  that  I 
should  some  day  really  turn  blue  and  stay  so.  Does 
not  the  ceiling  look  as  if  it  had  been  painted  ?" 

"  It  does,  my  dear  ;  but  you  see  its  hue  varies  a 
little  when  the  waves  dash  up  and  fill  the  opening. 
You  can  see,  if  you  watch,  that  the  rocks  are 
really  brown,  though  most  of  the  time  they  look 
blue." 

"I  am  almost  afraid  that  we  cannot  get  out 
again,"  said  Mary.  "  Just  see  how  the  spray  breaks 
into  the  doorway." 

Already  the  boatmen  gave  them  notice  that  it 
was  time  to  leave,  for  they  feared  the  sea  might  rise 
and  detain  them. 

11  This  is  a  beautiful  place,  signorina,"  they  said 


KETUKN    TO    CAPRI.  197 

to  Mary,  "  but  we  do  not  want  to  stay  here  all 
night." 

The  boat  shot  out  of  the  Grotto  in  the  same  way 
that  it  had  entered,  and  in  a  moment  Mrs.  Brown 
and  Mary  found  themselves  in  the  open  air,  with 
the  blue  vault  of  the  sky  above  their  heads,  instead 
of  the  blue,  rocky  roof  of  the  cave.  As  they  rowed 
homeward,  Mary  kept  her  eyes  fixed  on  the  preci 
pices  that  rose  from  the  water's  edge,  and  on  the 
brilliant  red  moss  which  grew  along  their  base.  She 
said  not  a  word  until  they  were  half  way  back  to 
their  hotel.  Then,  turning  to  her  mother,  she  ex 
claimed  : 

"  It  does  not  seem  as  if  we  had  ever  been  in  the 
Grotto.  I  begin  to  think  it  was  all  a  beautiful 
dream.  I  wish  I  could  always  dream  as  beautiful 
dreams  as  the  Grotta  Azzurra." 

The  boatmen  sang  cheerily  as  they  plied  their  oars, 
and  Mary  and  her  mother  listened  in  silence  to  the 
pleasant  strain.  As  they  neared  the  beach,  they 
saw  several  fishing  boats,  and  Mary  said  : 

"  I  do  not  see  how  people  can  enjoy  killing  inno 
cent  fishes." 

It* 


198      THE  LONG,    STEEP   FLIGHT   OF   STAIRS. 

"My  dear  child,"  replied  her  mother,  "these 
people  do  not  fish  for  amusement,  I  think,  but 
because  they  want  something  to  eat." 

"In  that  case  I  can  forgive  them,"  said  Mary, 
laughing  ;  "  but  I  would  rather  go  hungry  one  day 
than  catch  fishes  myself." 

An  early  dinner  was  ready  for  them  when  they 
returned  from  the  Grotto.  During  the  meal,  Mary 
talked  a  great  deal  about  the  wonderful  place  they 
had  seen. 

"  I  like  Capri  altogether,"  she  said  at  last.  "  I 
shall  really  be  sorry  to  go  away.  I  wish  we  could 
stay  another  day.  But  since  we  must  go  to-mor 
row,  I  want  to  go  out  this  afternoon  and  take  a 
walk." 

"  There  is  a  wonderful  walk  you  can  take, 
Mary,  if  you  are  fond  of  going  up  stairs,"  said  Mrs. 
Brown. 

"  Why,  what  do  you  mean,  mamma  ?"  asked 
Mary,  opening  her  eyes  very  wide.  "I  do  not 
understand  you." 

"  Well,  my  daughter,  there  is  a  part  of  this  island 
where  you  have  not  yet  been.  It  is  a  very  lofty 
plain,  and  can  only  be  reached  by  a  long  flight  of 


VISIT   TO   ANA-CAPRI.  199 

stairs.  These  stairs  are  so  steep  that  even  donkeys 
cannot  go  np  them,  so  all  the  burdens  are  carried 
up  and  down  on  the  heads  of  men  and  women." 

"  Why  do  they  want  to  carry  burdens  up  there, 
mamma  ?" 

"  Because  there  is  a  town  up  there,  my  child." 

"  How  funny,  to  put  a  town  up  on  such  a  high 
place.  What  is  it  called  ?" 

"  It  is  the  town  of  Ana-Capri." 

"  Who  made  the  steps  up  to  it  ?" 

"  It  is  not  known  who  made  them.  They  were 
made  long,  long  ago.  They  are,  for  the  most  part, 
cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  and  there  are  five  hun 
dred  and  thirty  steps." 

"  I  do  not  think  I  could  go  up  so  many,  mamma, 
if  there  is  nothing  to  see  at  the  top." 

"  Let  us  go  and  look  at  them,  Mary,  and  see  how 
we  would  like  to  be  poor  people  and  have  to  carry 
burdens  up  and  down  them." 

They  put  on  their  bonnets,  and  after  walking  a 
few  minutes  reached  the  foot  of  the  steps.  These 
steps  led  up  the  side  of  a  very  steep  mountain  ;  all 
the  way  there  were  men,  and  women,  and  children 
going  up  and  down,  carrying  great  baskets  of 


200  VISIT   TO   ANA-CAPRI. 

clothes  and  other  articles  upon  their  heads.  They 
held  themselves  very  erect,  and  went  slowly  up  the 
steep  stairs.  Mary  and  her  mother  began  to  ascend 
quite  rapidly,  but  before  long  they  felt  tired,  and 
slackened  their  pace. 

Mary  felt  sorry  for  the  women,  but  she  felt  still  more 
sorry  for  the  little  boys  and  girls,  whose  limbs  trem 
bled  under  the  heavy  loads  they  bore  on  their  heads. 
She  saw  before  her  one  little  girl,  who  carried  a 
basket  full  of  different  things,  among  which  was  a 
sword.  Mary  overtook  her  and  said  : 

"Let  me  carry  that  sword  for  you,  my  little 
girl,"  and  she  took  it  carefully  out  of  the  basket 
and  put  it  across  her  own  shoulder.  Her  mother 
smiled  encouragingly  at  her,  for  she  liked  to  see  her 
daughter  do  little  acts  of  kindness.  Oh,  how  tired 
Mary  was  when  she  reached  the  top  !  The  little 
girl  thanked  her  for  carrying  the  sword.  She  then 
asked  them  if  they  were  going  to  Ana-Capri.  "  I 
will  show  you  the  way,"  she  said. 

She  led  them  on  through  narrow  roads,  walled 
in  on  either  side  by  stone  fences,  and  before  long 
they  came  to  the  little  town.  The  church  was 
closed,  for  which  Mary  was  sorry,  for  she  would 


VISIT   TO   ANA-CAPRI.  201 

have  liked  to  see  how  the  inside  looked.  The 
streets  were  many  of  them  steep  and  narrow. 

"It  is  only  a  little  town,  mamma,"  she  said,  "we 
should  call  it  a  village  at  home.  Let  us  take  this 
little  street  and  see  where  it  leads  to.  I  wish  we 
could  find  a  fountain,  I  am  so  thirsty." 

The  little  Italian  girl,  having  deposited  her  bur 
den  at  a  house,  led  the  way  for  them.  "  This  road 
leads  only  into  the  fields,"  she  said,  "  there  is  no- 
ing  to  see."  Still  Mary  wanted  to  go  on  ;  but  after 
roaming  about  in  the  fields  awhile,  she  was  glad 
enough  to  turn  back  toward  the  town. 

Mrs.  Brown  asked  the  little  Italian  whether  they 
could  procure  anything  to  eat,  for  the  exercise  of 
climbing  up  the  stairs  had  given  them  an  appetite. 
The  little  girl  took  them  to  her  mother's  house, 
who  set  on  the  table,  figs,  bowls  of  milk,  and  a  kind 
of  grey  bread. 

"If  the  signora  would  like  oranges,"  she  said, 
"  there  are  some  in  the  garden  and  I  will  run  and 
pick  them." 

Mrs.  Brown  said  they  would  like  some  ;  and  the 
woman,  took  a  basket  and  went  out.  In  a  few 


202  VISIT   TO    ANA-CAPKI. 

minutes,  she  returned  with  a  number  of  large 
oranges,  banging  on  stems  and  shaded  by  large 
green  leaves. 

"It  seems  a  shame  to  eat  them,"  said  Mary. 
"  How  I  wish  we  could  carry  them  home." 

Still  Mary  was  not  long  in  taking  the  beautiful 
leaves  from  an  orange,  and  in  a  minute  more  she 
was  enjoying  the  ripe  sweet  juice.  "  Oh,  mamma, 
oranges  are  so  good  right  from  the  tree,"  she 
said. 

The  woman  soon  brought  in  several  sticks  of  dried 
figs.  The  figs  had  been  split  and  stuck  upon  a  long 
stick.  She  offered  them  to  Mrs.  Brown  to  take 
away  with  her. 

"  If  you  will  carry  two  sticks,  Mary,  I  will  buy 
four,"  said  Mrs.  Brown.  "  You  know  that  as  soon 
as  we  return  to  Naples,  we  must  pack  up  our  trunk 
and  start  for  Venice.  We  shall  go  by  carriage  as 
far  as  Ancona,  and  as  that  will  probably  take  us 
a  week,  we  shall  be  glad  to  have  some  figs  with  us. 
When  we  lunch  on  them  they  will  remind  us  of 
Capri." 

Mrs.  Brown  and  her  daughter  took  their  leave  of 


CONCLUSION.  203 

the  woman,  each  carrying  away  two  sticks  of  figs. 
Mary  bade  the  little  girl  good-bye,  and  slipped  into 
her  hand  a  little  piece  of  money  to  remember  her  by. 

"  She  will  remember  her  without  any  money," 
said  the  Italian  woman.  "  We  poor  people  remem 
ber  those  who  are  kind  to  us.  She  told  me  how 
you  carried  the  sword  for  her." 

The  little  Italian  girl  smiled  and  asked  Mary 
what  her  name  was.  When  she  heard  it,  she 
repeated  it,  but  instead  of  calling  it  "Mary,"  she 
called  it  "Maria,"  for  that  is  the  Italian  of 
"  Mary." 

Mrs.  Brown  and  her  daughter  walked  slowly  back 
to  the  steps  and  went  down.  People  were  still 
clambering  up  them  with  heavy  burdens,  or  return 
ing  down  them  without  any  loads.  Sunset  was 
flushing  the  sky,  and  Mary  was  not  sorry  that  the 
hours  of  rest  were  approaching. 

When  they  arrived  at  their  hotel,  she  was  glad 
to  take  her  supper  and  go  to  bed.  Her  limbs  ached 
after  her  unusual  exertion.  The  next  morning  they 
went  in  a  row-boat  back  to  Sorrento. 

From  Sorrento  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mary  took  a  car 
riage  to  Castel-a-mare,  and  thence  returned  by  cars 


204  CONCLUSION. 

to  Naples.  That  afternoon  they  packed  their 
trunk,  and  the  next  morning  started  for  Venice. 
As  they  drove  out  of  Naples,  Mary  exclaimed  : 

"  After  all,  mamma,  I  never  saw  the  king,  and  I 
thought  the  day  that  we  went  past  his  palace, 
when  we  first  came  to  Naples — the  day,  you  remem 
ber,  when  we  first  saw  the  beautiful  Bay — that  I 
would  rather  see  the  king  than  anything  else." 

"  And  what  do  you  think  now,  my  love  ?"  asked 
her  mother. 

"  Oh,  mamma,  I  would  rather  have  seen  the  great 
Museum,  and  Pompeii,  and  Vesuvius,  and  Capri, 
and  the  Grotto  Azzurra,  than  King  Ferdinand  II.  of 
Naples." 


THE      END. 


PS 


